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Macedonian mystery!

soma lkzx — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:57:26 -0800

Macedonia is all about a page I made and I'd love to know why. Translation request inside! This page has been generating a ton of traffic for my site, but I sure can't understand it. Rumor has it that Macedonian is mutually intelligible with Bulgarian, but Google Translate disagrees.

Secondary question: What would be a comparable English-language site to on.net.mk? YA just has it as a "popular web site."

Rockin' in the Eastern Hemisphere, or would be if I wasn't in the US

curagea — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:35:47 -0800

Calling all Germanic (and Slavic) rockers, ravers and, uh, *insert classical term that starts with "r"*! Help me expand my music collection with European melodies! A similar question was asked before, but I'd like to narrow the scope down a bit.

I'm a big-time metal/hard rock/electronica/classical/ambient fan. I like non-American music more than American, and have heard that Europe has a big music scene for those genres. Sure, I could spend countless hours listening to samples from each of them, but I'm VERY picky about the music I listen to. Main reason? Getting inspirations for making my own music.

So, fellow MeFites, help me discover more European music that adhere to one or more of the following criteria. I'll be listing American and non-American examples that I feel exemplifies the qualities I want so you can have a few starters. Oh, and I use the term "electronica" broadly, just to point out:

- Good/great sense of melody - This one is top priority. The more complex, the better, whether by vocal and/or instrument. And if screaming/growling is involved, it better be done not just for show (see below). Examples: Disturbed, Poisonblack, Paradise Lost, A Perfect Circle (Mer de Noms), Orgy, Schiller, Lunar, Hybrid, BT, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Liszt, Squaremeter

- Heavyweight/Workout/Emotional - Oh yeah. I love to bang my head and blow my eardrums out (not literally, of course). Or really rave and dance like a maniac. Or... shake my head in internal pain over the piano. Examples: Disturbed, Judas Priest (pre-Nostradamus), Testament, Oomph!, Rammstein (pre-Reise Reise), The Prodigy (pre-Fat of the Land), The Crystal Method's "Stir Fry - Breakin On The Street", Infected Mushroom, Rachmaninov, Lizst

- Quirkiness - I also don't mind something that "sounds" fun and manages to be unpredictable. Examples: Mars Volta, Spacehog, Van Halen, Infected Mushroom, Dead Can Dance, 70's Scorpions, System of a Down, Prokofiev

- Angst with authenticity - There's screaming and growling and wailing, then there's the good mature kind, done in the right places so they don't like they're just... there. Examples: Disturbed (yeah I know, I'm a fan), Oomph! (pre-Ego), 30 Seconds to Mars (debut album), Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Paradise Lost, Alice in Chains, Sevendust, Zeromancer

- Good drumwork - I'm not a drummer, but since getting Rock Band, I've been paying more attention to drums because they're so underestimated. Speed is not an issue; complexity is. Examples: Disturbed post-Believe (alright, I'll stop), Mars Volta, Testament, Queens of the Stone Age, Kagerou (NO Dragonforce. After listening to the stupid lyrics and the mind-numbing drums and guitars, that kind of music now just exhausts my brain).

- Mysterious/Twisted - Crawl-under-your-skin or whoa... gnarly... Examples: Panacea/Squaremeter, SunnO))), Infected Mushroom, late 80's/early 90's Delerium, the soundtrack from Quake, some Prokofiev

- Germanic lyrics, Slavic lyrics, or none - This includes German, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, English, Czech, Russian. Please no French; I heard French rock once and it made me cringe. Chinese rock made me laugh out loud, not in a good way. I don't really care whether the lyrics make sense or not.

Whew! I know that's a lot to cover, but these criteria were listed in order of descending importance to me, so don't worry if your searches don't match all of them. Metal, electronica, classical, ambient - heck, even New Age (think Enya) - , whether from the mainstream or indie, gimme gimme gimme! I really love to see what new great music is out there. Who do you recommend/what are your favorites?

Note: Middle Eastern-style music is acceptable too, comme Squaremeter's "Aswad".

Who wrote these weird short stories?

thewrongparty — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:02:12 -0800

Please help me locate a collection of Russian/Eastern Bloc short stories. I read this book when I was kid because it belonged to my parents and I want to read it again. If not the book, I'd like to find the two most memorable stories. One concerns a snowman and the other is a reflection on life while falling out of a window to one's death. Details inside... 1. Local officials observe children building a snowman in a public square. The officials think that the children are creating offensive caricatures of them in the snow. They are sort of right.

2. A man is pushed/jumps/accidentally falls out of a window of a tall building. As he falls, he looks into the windows of the building's tenants and reconsiders the decision to fall. He sort of sees a love story play out, from innocent lovers in bed to betrayal and infidelity in the end. By the end of it, he decides he does want to fall and chooses to smash his head against the pavement.

One more thing I remember: a story possibly titled something like "Matryoshka's* House." The part I remember is a vivid description of the walls. The layers of wallpaper over the many years have stuck together and pulled away from the wall itself. Roaches (or maybe it was rats) scuttle around in the space in between and the author describes being able to see the movement of their bodies under the wallpaper. This image has stuck with me for many, many years.

Now that I've summarized these stories, I realize I was a weird kid.

I believe that the stories were contemporary, or at least contemporary when they were published. (However, I could be totally wrong.) I think this may have been a textbook of my mom's from college, so nothing in there could've been published later than the early 70's.

The google is failing me and I know there are lit majors here...

*Petryoishkavov's. Glastnostolavt's. Whatever. Something long and Russian-sounding.

Help me identify this song from Malcolm in the Middle

headlessagnew — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:02:49 -0800

SlavicMusicFilter: I heard a song on Malcolm in the Middle, and found it oddly compelling, but can't identify it! After seeing this episode on TV, I tracked down the appropriate information. It's the season 6 episode "Ida Loses a Leg" and the song is featured while Ida (the grandmother) chases after Dewey to push him out of the way of an oncoming truck. The "Malcolm Music Site" doesn't have it listed, and on another message board there's some discussion but no conclusion. I've made an mp3 sample of the sequence in question. It sounds slavic to me, but I'm no expert.

Has anyone heard this song before? Is there any hope for my sanity?