On the B-side

A-few-clowns-short readers will probably remember what the B-side was. I suspect very few of their children or grandchildren will know. Those 45’s had two sides, A and B. The stereo LP was the big thing when I purchased my own stereo so I had a meager 45 collection. My older sister had the 45's.

Today I guess singles are released via youtube or some other streaming media. LP’s are making a comeback but I doubt 45’s will. How could you have a B-side of a streamed digital song?

This morning a B-side song, "Touch the Wind" was played on my favorite oldie station. As I listened I thought that sounds like an oldie hit Spanish song. A little quick easy research (not quick or easy back when 45’s played) turned up the answer to my puzzle. The A-side was “Eres Tú” which was top US billboard hit in the early 70’s.

You would think the B-side being in English would be a translation of the original Spanish version. It’s not.

You know I love parodies and hit songs are the best ones to parody. I found this parody but it’s in Dutch so I don’t understand it. From the video I gather they are singing that it’s dessert. Warning the video will make you hungry and book a flight to the Netherlands.



Another fun video I found has Chris Farley and David Spade singing “Eres Tú” in the movie “Tommy Boy”. They sing it just after slaughtering "It's the End of the World" song. 

como el agua de mi fuente

CC explorer slave trader

Dare I jump into the Columbus Day (or the new counter-celebration name Indigenous Peoples' Day)  controversy?

Painting by Sebastiano del Piombo

Just like life, history is complicated.  Even when I was a kid (almost ancient history) there were different opinions about Chris vs. Leif being the first European explorer "to discover" our continent.  Between these two, Chris certainly had better backing and support.  Also, Chris is endorsed by the Knights of Columbus.

The first people to find our land of course were the ancestors of the native people.  There is no disagreement that they were already living here when Chris and his crew showed up. The archeological evidence suggests that the Paleo-Indians' first "widespread" habitation of the Americas occurred during the end of the last glacial period around 16,500–13,000 years ago.  So even Leif might have met a greeting party had he looked around long enough.

Today the controversy is more about character of the group Chris lead over here.  He had promised his backers plenty of gold.  Face with coming up short he brought back the natives as slaves to be sold.  In today's world Chris would be hunted down for his human trafficking and killing.  But he didn't live in today's world which also offers better ships, communication and GPS navigation.

I think we should celebrate him as an explorer willing to lead his crew into the unknown.  The in-depth study of his exploration should include a discussion/comparison of his actions to currently accepted laws and ethics.  No need to bury it in the sand.


The John Oliver show took a humorous look at this controversial celebration.  He points out the Chris and his crew started the long tradition of obnoxious white people visiting Caribbean islands and acting like they own the place.  I wouldn't argue that point. 

taco talking parody

You'll be salsa sliding after listening to this parody. If your Latin music is too limited and you have missed the pleasure of hearing the original Cuban folk song check out this link Guantanamera

Now taco me this. Do you agree this parody should rank five sun-dried tomatoes?






I've surprised myself again.  I don't even like whole tomatoes.

NOTE an update - I love blog interaction and the comment on this post left me wondering which sixties group had a hit with this song.  A little google magic later, the answer is the Sandpipers. "Guantanamera" charted in the US in September 1966, and in the UK the following month, and remains the group's biggest hit. Here's a link to that version.
 

I didn’t start the fragments

Mrs. 4444 did, as best I can tell.

Do you get tired of watering your blog? I do and I have seen many just drop a drooping blog. I find Friday Fragments as easy to apply blog nourishment.

Thinking of blog nourishment, I’ve been working on my header banner lately. The old words of “Few Clowns Short” need to much dusting so I took the sign down. I’m still trying to figure out where to put the blog name “A Few Clowns Short”. I was short of space in original graphic so the ‘A’ was dropped from the start.

Interesting outcome to my last post about learning Spanish from Shakira youtube videos. Most the comments have additional Spanish in them. So I’m learning a little Spanish from a post about learning Spanish from Shakira.

Recent comparison of early morning Lisleman vs. zombie:

• both hungry 
• both drag their feet 
• both have breath you don’t want to know 
• both often grunt and moan as they move 
• both look awful

Except for lack of blood dripping and coffee drinking (have you ever seen a zombie sit down for a cup of coffee?) a person could might mistake me for a zombie in the morning.

what did you learn on the internet today? 

I learned the term “patter song” which is a type of song I’ve enjoyed over the years but never knew of its classification. The lyrics of a patter song are sung in a rapid fashion. It presents a challenge to pick out the words. “We Didnt Start The Fire” by Billy Joel is an example of a favorite of mine.

I found the following one on G+. It was released in 1974. After listening, I remember it but still can’t figure out the lyrics.



A few days I ago I did learn an odd thing about sperm whales. I’ll be posting about it soon but feel free to take a wild guess. Oh and it’s nothing to do with Shakira or Spanish.

she makes a man want to speak spanish

I asked the famous Latina blogger (neither of those adjectives apply to me) if I could learn Spanish from watching Shakira on youtube.

Lisleman:
My question - Could I learn Spanish by watching Shakira on youtube?

Unknown Mami:
No but you could learn to shake your hips like a moneymaker.

First off, my hips never had the motions expressed by Shakira.  Secondly, how embarrassing having to tell the doctor that I was shaking my hips like a moneymaker when I collapsed in pain. (would be an interesting post though)

I picked up a few words already.

Como se llama - does not mean anything about the llamas of Peru.

Baila en la calle de noche - except I can’t dance worth a damn.

Shakira is very bonita.
 

Is this idea loca?

Would it require tequila?

uh say what

I should learn more languages. I did alright in German during High School, so Herman Cain’s recent nein nein nein plan sounded very negative to me. No matter, I believe he and the lady from Alaska with the tour bus will be introducing gourmet wildlife pizza in a joint venture. 

But it’s even harder to pick-out foreign words in a song. 

You know that one Christmas song with decent acoustic guitar sound? Sounds like the folk singer has an accent. I think it’s a holiday song about fleece. Probably just nonsense lyrics but here’s what I hear:

fleece never a knot 

poor sparrow annoy police a lot 

(do you hear what I hear? nevermind) 

Most of the European languages are the root for English so figuring out a very tiny bit of Spanish is no hay problema. 

But try learning some Far East languages like Japanese. I can’t even make my mouth move the right way. As a romantic teen in the sixties (hey my blog, my version of history) I remember humming to this catchy Japanese song that was a big hit even though very few knew what the lyrics meant. I had to look up the name of the song (waste of amazing time machine the internet). 

The title is actually, Ue o Muite Arukō, which would be tough to remember on your way to the record store (oh the download was not invented yet kids) so the record company renamed it Sukiyaki. Makes me wonder if the guy had connections in the Japanese restaurant business.

digital impact

As I glanced down at the front page of today’s Chicago Tribune, I see the face of the man who had the vision behind the laptop on which I create. I agree with giving Steve Jobs the headline, “American Pioneer”. 

But many more people will not be reading or learning about his legacy from a newspaper. Their media of choice will be digital media. Today our habits have become digital.

FB, G+, blogs, laptops, smartphones, and real life can combine in good and bad ways. I don’t know if social media makes us more or less social, but our gadgets play a role in real life get-togethers. 

Que Hora es - about noon at the moment. 

But the answer to this question for me has expanded to, “time for a laugh”. 

Confused? 

Yes, I am most of the time too. I’ll explain. 

Part of my digital habit is youtube. I enjoy discovering funny and interesting clips. I listen to music on youtube. I create my own clips. 

Have you noticed youtube clips coming up in conversation at family parties lately? 

Oh did you see the youtube clip of the blah blah blah? 

Oh you need to see it. Let me grab my laptop ….

On our recent trip I described to my wife the youtube clip of a skit called “Que Hora es” that I had found. I guess, I described it very well because she was cracking up. We were in the car at the time so she didn’t get to see it but found the idea very funny. (it came from a short lived show called “Cedric the Entertainer Presents”) 

While at my sister’s place it wasn’t too long before I mentioned this youtube gem. My wife urged me to pull it up on my laptop. She still have not seen it. 

My BIL found it hilarious. He quickly shared it with his brothers and sisters. I learned he knows more Spanish than me. My limited amount comes from visiting Spanish speaking countries and having a few Spanish speaking relatives. 

Maybe in the future we won’t retell jokes but show funny video clips instead. Going completely digital is not good but these gadgets can add to the fun. I think a good balance of sharing laughs by telling jokes and showing clips works the best. 

Here’s the skit - enjoy

browse stumble click

I certainly don't know how readers of this blog navigate their internet trips. I do suspect not too many bother to click on things over on the side column.

You know over there --> look over on the right there. It's not all ads. There are some other blogs/sites listed and some of my favorite past posts.

I find this stumbling around the net an interesting way to find things. Of course, it also can consume much of your time so it's not an effective way. How many of you use services like tumblr, delicious, digg, stumbleupon?

Well the following (was listed on the right side for a long time - did you ever notice?) was a fun post I did last year (I'll explain why I'm reposting below)


--- from May 2008 ---






--- back to today and why I reposted ---

very simple really - I stumbled across an update of that clip - the SECOND semester spanish love song. It's even funnier - do you think so?




If I watch it enough I might actually learn a little more Spanish. I know cerveza and what you need to know afterwards - baño

need to learn spanish fast