1. Now I know what a musette de cour is. It is ridiculously cute and you can find them playing Vivaldi on Youtube. Also this painting of a dandy playing one, all clothed in velvet and silks (both the man and the musette).
2. I've been wondering for a month and a half how come the Slovenian bagpipe band at the Strakonice festival sounded more Hungarian than the Hungarians (which is a good thing when it comes to music but not politics), while the Slovenian folk music I find online is boring oompah music (as opposed to exciting oompah music, which is entirely possible and probably exists in the Slovenian folk corpus somewhere). I was so sure the sign at Strakonice said "Slovenian." I was damn sure it said "Slovensko," anyhow ... I'm sure a moment's thought will tell yhou where I'm going with this, "Slovensko" is in fact Slovakia, which really does trend Hungarian to the ear (musically, and I am afraid politically too). Slovenia is Slovinsko. How could I ever, ever confuse the two? They are nothing alike!
3. Looking at Youtube videos of the Strakonice festival, after having been there myself, is thrilling in a way that I couldn't have predicted. I think I need to do a lot more traveling, just so I can have the thrill of recognition when I encounter the places I've been in media somewhere. Yesterday I saw the chateau of Troja in a tumblr post and I was so excited because even before I read the caption I knew it could be no other place.
I am in bagpipe mind because the story I am writing is about digging in California dirt to arrive at fairyland. There are no bagpipes in the story, not even one. So therefore, bagpipe mind.
2. I've been wondering for a month and a half how come the Slovenian bagpipe band at the Strakonice festival sounded more Hungarian than the Hungarians (which is a good thing when it comes to music but not politics), while the Slovenian folk music I find online is boring oompah music (as opposed to exciting oompah music, which is entirely possible and probably exists in the Slovenian folk corpus somewhere). I was so sure the sign at Strakonice said "Slovenian." I was damn sure it said "Slovensko," anyhow ... I'm sure a moment's thought will tell yhou where I'm going with this, "Slovensko" is in fact Slovakia, which really does trend Hungarian to the ear (musically, and I am afraid politically too). Slovenia is Slovinsko. How could I ever, ever confuse the two? They are nothing alike!
3. Looking at Youtube videos of the Strakonice festival, after having been there myself, is thrilling in a way that I couldn't have predicted. I think I need to do a lot more traveling, just so I can have the thrill of recognition when I encounter the places I've been in media somewhere. Yesterday I saw the chateau of Troja in a tumblr post and I was so excited because even before I read the caption I knew it could be no other place.
I am in bagpipe mind because the story I am writing is about digging in California dirt to arrive at fairyland. There are no bagpipes in the story, not even one. So therefore, bagpipe mind.
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