ask pomenitul

hello pom, which album covers and titles do you find most compelling?

do you prefer songs or albums

I like it when songs are part of an album.

As for album covers, I am a visually challenged iconoclast. I also hate words and hence titles.

do u feel more romanian or canadian or something else

On second thought, I am sensitive to cheesy, punny classical album covers, such as this one:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71jawUSkFcL._SY355_.jpg

lol

Which currently active composers are you into?

Hmm. I am generally at a slight remove from whatever culture I am currently engaged in. Which ultimately feels Canadian more than anything.

I've listened to very little classical music this year because metal is a harsh taskmistress. But in recent years, I've favoured Helena Tulve, Alberto Posadas and Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir. Off the top of my head.

You were able to recommend 27 new classical music albums in a year when you "listened to very little classical music"!

To ask something, what is it that brought you to the UK? If school, what are you studying?

some fearsome answers. what are your favourite bits of choral music? particularly interested in any old favs you might have like brumel's earthquake mass or leonin & perotin

True enough lol. I guess for a binge-listener like myself (and 95% of ILXors) it doesn't feel like much, all the more so since I dedicated the previous six or seven years of listening to classical music almost exclusively.

As for what brought me to the UK, I finished my PhD (in French literature) last year and got a postdoctoral scholarship to stave off perpetual unemployment for another two years. One of the French writers I'm working on happens to be more popular in the UK than in North America (even France, to some extent, although that's debatable) so it was easier to find someone to work with across the pond. I'm also accessorily interested in his influence on contemporary British literature, so it made for an easier sell.

xp

oh cool, where are you studying?

Awesome question, ogmor. I absolutely love Victoria's 1605 Requiem, especially as performed by The Sixteen. And yes, Pérotin remains a stalwart favourite, although I'm slightly less taken with Léonin. For less conventional choral sounds from the pre-classical period, Marcel Pérès's and the Ensemble Organum's series for Harmonia Mundi is a bottomless well of unorthodox (to modern ears, at least) takes on the European tradition, and I'm immediately sold on any disc featuring works by Ars nova composers.

I'm at that classist stronghold they call Oxford. As someone whose knowledge of British culture is frankly limited, or unconventional at best, it does have a way of making me feel remarkably inadequate, especially since I suffer from a severe case of impostor syndrome (like most would-be academics, no doubt).

[calzino] you're doubtless increasing the average intelligence of that open latrine by a factor of three! [/calzino]

let's talk metal. what are you looking for when you press play on a black metal album

xp like very few oxbridgians tho

Pomenitul/ogmor, I assume you both enjoy Machaut's Messe de Notre dame ~~

It really depends, imago. As a general rule, I like to be consumed by a seething vortex of inverted stars, so anything that approximates that effect is bound to catch my interest. Some amount of melodic and harmonic variation is necessary, however, otherwise I quickly get bored. But I'm also into Emperor and Dissection worship, as long as it manages to shake up the formula somewhat or beat them at their own game (which has yet to occur, in my experience). Experimentalism or whatever you wish to call it is not something I seek for its own sake but I have very little patience for Transilvanian Hunger soundalikes especially.

Yes, the Messe de Notre Dame is definitely up there for me. And Pérès and the Ensemble Organum have incidentally provided us with a deliciously idiosyncratic recording of it (but aren't they all?).

darragh, the word that always springs to mind when I meet genuine Oxbridgians (aside from the professors themselves, who have been incredibly nice and welcoming thus far, mostly giving the lie to my fears) is 'serenity'. They are utterly serene in their expectation that life will turn out exactly as it should, and they're probably, depressingly correct in their assessment.

ppl from camford are presumably resigned to their lot

pomenitul you haven’t heard Setherial Nord or Sacramentum Far Away From The Sun?

I have (thanks to you, incidentally) and I love them both, but neither tops In the Nightside Eclipse as far as I'm concerned. To be fair, it's the first BM album that thoroughly clicked for me, so it holds a special place in my personal pantheon. Maybe I'll change my mind in a few years.

Speaking of which, have you heard Vargrav's Netherstorm? I've only listened to it once but it struck me as a solid approximation.

pomenitul will liverpool win the league

Yes, Shaqiri willing.

pomenitul: what is the thread where people complained about air pods and called them “douchey”? I got a pair for christmas and I’m in love. They sync so easily to my iphone and sound, seemingly, better than earbuds though obviously not as good as my high end headphones. I want to yell at the people who say air pods are bad.

Here you go. As a side note, I've been known to describe them as douchey irl myself, but deep down my envy knows no bounds.

😎👍

E cineva acolo?

Doar până la un punct (am întâmpinat Anul Nou cu febră și frisoane).

O, îmi pare rău.

'Rău!' she said, shouting, pointing at my phone and then at the grave. 'Rău, rău, rău!'

Avea dreptate baba!

Dear pom,
Have you seen Infinite Football? Also do you mind answering beginner Romanian questions, should they arise, from language study dilettantes?

Sincerely,
JR&tBs

Dear James,

I haven't seen it yet, no, but I'm generally a fan of Porumboiu's stuff. As for questions about the Romanian language, be my guest, I'll help however I can.

Best wishes,

pom

I haven’t bothered checking if your views have changed since but otm re AirPods.

Which language(s) do you think and/or dream in? Does it depend where you are or is it tied to memory?

My perception of AirPods hasn't changed, although now that the iPhone 6 is no longer supported I'm more envious of people who have iOS 13.

As for dreams… I guess it depends on the context but it usually feels like some kind of amorphous, pre-linguistic cipher is guiding me in my sleep, so it doesn't necessarily manifest itself in French or English or Romanian or whatever. The exception is when I'm going through an especially tense period, in which case my dreams tend to be a really obvious, almost 1 to 1 reflection of whatever severe worries I'm struggling to keep at bay. It's a little simplistic, maybe, but the more conscious and/or lucid the dream the likelier it is to be unfolding in a given known language. I much prefer the other kind tbh.

Sorry, I forgot to answer the part about thinking. When I'm contemplating something unbeknownst to myself – which happens all the time – it's usually a weird mix of whatever language is foremost in my mind at that point in time, usually for contextual reasons, and that pre-linguistic, possibly fictive construct that more readily takes over when I'm dreaming. If I'm specifically thinking about other people, though, it will always be in their language.

Historic, high-value paintings stolen from Oxford college gallery

Decided to take some souvenirs with you, eh?

It was the right time, what with Interpol being banned from trans-Atlantic flights and all.

And after the cases of wine too? Incorrigible.

how about a nice side hustle exporting papyri from the classics/Egyptology library?

(lol at the picture further down with artefacts being kept in cardboard boxes advertising cat food, etc)

(that was a lol-but-not-surprised lol, but I appreciate that that may be just fine, and even if not ideal there will be a skilled conservation team who sometimes just have to shrug at the odd decisions of the past and say "well, it's already there, so it may as well stay there for now")

Hope you made it home OK and found somewhere to stay if required, pom.

Thanks, aps! We are now across the pond and are currently at my parents' place, as my dad got some comforting news regarding his health on Friday, which means there's far less of a risk than I initially feared. Quebec is in a state of partial lockdown at the moment and I have no idea when it will be lifted – all I know is that we made it back in the nick of time.

I hope you and yours are safe, by the way. Johnson's crisis management skills have got me worried, and the University's relative laissez-faire approach seems irresponsible in light of the 7 cases that have been recorded so far on campus.

Good to hear Pom! Sounds like the best possible outcome for you, and good news for your dad to boot.

we never did pom fap

I suppose we'll have to come to Canada now

Well, not now

Sounds like a plan imo

Please do! I may also need to move back to England at some point (I'll find out in June), in which case a FAP involving yours truly will undoubtedly be had, I can promise that much.

If we let anyone into the isolation cave ;)

Works both ways tbf.

Good to hear about your dad. What are the chances of you having to come back here?

Hard to say, really. Anywhere between 33% to 50% at this point. I'll find out soon enough…

Duolingo just spit this out:
Se spune că din ziua aceea, animalele nu au mai vorbit cu omul.

Heh, that would make for a fine ending (or beginning) to a basm.

There was also this, perhaps a dispatch from Castle Dracula:
Se spune că oameni morți umblă pe această stradă în fiecare noapte!

Haha, now that’s just straight-up trolling.

I was wondering whether you could help with this - I'm trying to find the recording dates for the tracks on this CD

https://www.discogs.com/Ioana-Radu-Ioana-Radu/release/4049953

It says "Înregistrări din perioada 1949-1957" but I'm looking for something a bit more specific.

I'll see what I can do, but Romanian record labels are notoriously awful when it comes to documenting archival material.

Don't worry if you can't find anything - it seems to be basically a CDR, and her discography on wikipedia only lists these tracks on this CD

https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discografia_Ioanei_Radu

I'm not going to ask you anything, pom, just share this video I found this on YouTube, which I shared on Facebook with the woman I work with who is into 60s and 70s fashion and music - and is a drummer and looks exactly like the drummer in this video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHVB8SuNkUc

her discography on wikipedia only lists these tracks on this CD

Some of them are songs recorded for Electrecord that were reedited under a different title, so maybe the missing links are duplicates as well? I don't know enough about her discography to say.

xp hah, that's some quality split-second editing towards the end. Thanks, Tom! And in case you were wondering, 'Dorință' means 'Desire'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Nopcsa_von_Fels%C5%91-Szilv%C3%A1s

what is your take on Baron Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, pom? I read about him in a book about the deep geologic history of Europe last night and from what I can gather he was a scumbag landed gentry arsehole from Transylvania who had a couple of failed attempts to declare himself the king of Albania and mostly lost his family legacy post treaty of versailles, but was also a brilliant pioneering palaeontologist who was possibly struggling with his bi-polar disorder problems and finished his life with a murder-suicide flourish to add to his *colourful* rep! Probably not classic, but not dull.

I'd never heard of him, calz, so thanks for the heads up. Looks like I've got some reading to do.

Based on the little information I've gathered so far, he was born in Transylvania at a time when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and seemed to have had no special affinity for his Romanian roots, so I wouldn't be surprised if material on him were more readily available across the border.

That said, this guy – a self-styled independent scholar – seems to have taken quite a liking to the baron, since he devoted an entire monograph to Nopcsa's 'adventures and travels':

https://independent.academia.edu/DacianMuntean

It's in Romanian, though, and insofar as the author describes himself as a 'storyteller', I doubt historical accuracy was uppermost in his mind as he was writing it.

He sold his fossil collection to the British Museum and began travelling Europe on his motorcycle, with Bajazid riding pillion. The end came while Nopcsa was studying earthquakes, and he and Bajazid were living in a flat at Singerstrasse 12 in Vienna. As the great dinosaur expert Edwin H. Colbert described it:

On the 25th April 1933, something cracked inside Nopcsa. He gave his friend Bajazid a cup of tea heavily laced with sleeping powder. He then murdered the sleeping Bajazid, shooting him in the head with a pistol.

Nopcsa wrote a note, then shot himself, so putting an end to his noble lineage. His note explained that he was suffering from a ‘a complete breakdown in my nervous system’. Idiosyncratic to the end, he left the police instructions that ‘Hungarian academics’ should be strictly forbidden from mourning him.

obv a complete wanker, but a very compelling character in a Highsmith style noir!

Blue blood is a helluva drug.

hi pom,

is there room for an english-language thread on the Je déteste tout board ? i suppose i could find a thread about french here on ILE, but i'd prefer a space to be able to talk about french on a french board without sounding like a complete idiot

Hey budo,

Be my guest! All haters welcome.

fuck you !

Fous moi le camp!

*checks budo's rejoinder for non-breaking space*

You may proceed.

:)

hi pom,

are you Billy Joel?

Hi Neanderthal,

Nay, I am not Guillaume Martin Joël.

pom, what’s the best recording of Brahms’ op. 10 4 ballades

Can't go wrong with Michelangeli. I'd also recommend Kovacevich and Angelich (in that order).

nice, heard the former, will check the latter two (and maybe ill finish learning #4 past the first two pages)

Why do you troll so much?

Experientially seeking an answer to the age-old question:

""trolling""- has the meaning changed?

A true academic approach.

Beyond that, the real answer to every ILX-related question is and always has been 'procrastination'.

What’s an interesting word in Romanian for a specific term or concept that doesn’t translate into English?

I've seen claims that it's 'dor', but I don't buy that in the least. 'Yearning' and 'longing' work just as well.

Maybe 'trăire'? It means something like a particularly intense lived and/or spiritual experience.

pom, how do speak to non-ILX people about ILX ? do you tell them at all ? if you read a funny joke here, or come across an interesting point that you'd then like to share IRL, how does that normally go for you ?

I show my wife specific posts she's likely to find amusing. Maybe she'd join us if French was ILX's default language but even then I kinda doubt it.

I do mention it to friends on occasion and they just chalk it up to my unhealthy obsession with music.

Best Picture in 1985 was Amadeus. Have you seen Amadeus, did you like it, and did you sympathise with Salieri?

Yes on all three counts.

I'm not a huge Mozart fan, but I'll rep for the Requiem till I die. Most of his minor key works rule, actually.

Would you describe yourself as a wife guy

You tell me.

I refer you to the first four words my last post. I obviously have an opinion.

Insofar as less than 1% of my all too numerous posts on this here board are about my wife, I'mma venture a 'no'. Or maybe I'm blind to my own persistent wife-posting?

Got my answer. Thanks!

all the ilxors say he's pretty fly for a wife guy

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis

without disclosing your given name, can you tell is if it's easily frenchified ? do you do a john >> jean type situation or something different ?

jarman's caravaggio and that daft mozart movie were big influences on teenage me and boorman's excalibur. did you like any of those as well, pom?

can you tell is if it's easily frenchified ?

It is, actually, but the result is a bit esoteric in French (and English, for that matter), whereas in Romanian it's just banal, especially for dudes of my generation. I use my given name at all times, though, and devilishly derive pleasure from correcting those who mangle it.

I assumed upon moving to Québec I would become "roe-bear" but that did not happen

I should probably amend that to "upon moving to Montreal"

btw pom I am up for un FAP d'ici in 2021 or whenever lol/:(

I have not seen Caravaggio, which I'd venture to say is less well-known on this side of the pond? (I'm sure our resident film buffs can tell us more.) I did very much enjoy Excalibur, however, and am tempted to watch it again some time soon now that you've brought it up!

xps

Awesome, rob. Potential FAPpers from the other provinces would be most welcome as well!

Can’t quite figure out the right way to phrase this is as a question, but how do you feel about your mother tongue? To me it’s fascinating, further out in left field than any other Romance language I have encountered.

Hope that doesn’t sound patronizing

Because not trolling, it’s the most interesting Romance Language for me on Duolingo, the one where I can guess the least easily.

Hmm… I honestly don't have much of an answer to that question, which I'd never really thought about. To me, it just… is? Approaching the matter from an external perspective is harder than I expected. But I'll mull it over.

La mulți ani!

Multă sănătate. Noroc.

Is fíor é? Breithlá shona duit! Ceannóidh mé taoschnó* subh duit má bhuailiamid an bhliain seo.


*i had to look up this word and wow, it’s a new one to me although it makes total sense!

Vorbești irlandeză, pom?

Google Translate delivers. :)

'La mulți ani!' ('to many more years (to come)') is a confusing one because we use it for almost everything. But no, I'm not quite there yet, although I appreciate the thought!

'Un an nou fericit!' would be the more formal and less ambiguous variant in this particular instance.

(That Irish language blog looks amazing btw.)

xp n-am asemenea pretenții.

Treating this thread momentarily as a pom batsignal tbf, but have you seen this? Thought you'd might enjoy this, thin story but I love the photos:

Photos of 70s Romanian Rock Bands Defying Communist Rule

I didn't seen this, no, so thanks for the heads up! I'll forward it to my dad as well.

I quite like Phoenix (aka Transsylvania Phoenix outside of Romania), who probably did the most to bridge the gap between rock and Romanian folk music. Negură Bunget owes a great deal to their aesthetic.

Are there anthologies of 60s, 70s Romanian rock/psych/folk? I might need to check that out.

Just ran a quick search and there's this. I have no idea how you would go about acquiring it, though:

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Cenzurat-Cântece-Interzise-/release/2131097

It's an LP by a single band, but Phoenix's Cantofabule is very much worth checking out, if you're curious.

(Gotta copy/paste that link.)

Thank you, I am!

Do you ever use this dictionary? https://dexonline.ro/definitie/m%C3%A2nca/sinteza

Ce doriţi? Poate doriţi un ceai.

It's the gold standard, yeah.

xp doar o cafea deocamdată.