I didn't understand this. It's like they're speaking another language with my language.
It reminds me of being with my dad when I was young and he was speaking to the people he worked with. I couldn't understand a word of it. Like they're all from another planet using English differently to discuss things relevant to that other planet.
Norman Mailer described that in Ancient Evenings. The guy from the Delta hadn't a clue about what the elites in the military class found so funny. Each Egyptian word had a different meaning, every word a double entendre with mysterious meanings. The character was resolved to learn them all. The way Egyptian was spoken differently among distinct classes. The same language foreign to each level.
So did Lee Mendelson working with Charles Schultz on Snoopy specials. The kids heard the adults "wah wah wah wah wah." That's exactly how I felt when my dad talked shop with his associates. Even so late as age twenty-two, I recall standing there among them thinking, "Man, this is fucked up. I don't understand a single word of these things they are talking about so earnestly. I don't get why they become so agitated and why they find things so funny. I have no idea why this is so interesting to them. Oh well." Wah wah wah wah.
My language is normal. Theirs is weird.
And that happens in every language I try.
The deaf leave me in the dust with their whacked way of talking. While there I am left with my text book ways.
Today I looked up a common word in Spanish used on a television program. Tumbaburros
Except it is written TUMBA BURROS
So which is it? Tumbaburros or tumba burros. It's printed as the last one, two words, "tomb donkey."
While together tumbaburros means "dictionary" in Mexican slang. Apparently.
And they're playing some weird word game. So it must be weird common urban dictionary.
How you get "urban dictionary" from "tomb donkey" is beyond me.
And that's what this video is like. In English. It's Italian mafia in America spoken in English. An entire world of its own.
I hated Feech and loved it when his just desserts were served up. I didn't like him in Scarface, either. I wonder if he's an asshole in real life? He certainly plays a convincing one on screen. This scene is one of the few times I was on Paulie's side.
I liked Robert Loggia in T. H. E. Cat, which I watched when it was first aired. Then for a long time, nothing. I see he was in Prizzi's Honor and Scarface, but I don't remember him in either one. I do remember him as Feech, and while I know nothing of what he was like in real life, I am willing to attribute his unpleasantness to the role he was playing. It took me a couple of viewings of the entire Sopranos series for me to be able to separate Aida Turturro's work from her character Janice and the same thing with Nancy Marchand and Livia. Their acting was so good I couldn't stand the sight of them on the screen. Now that's good acting.
Anyway, Robert Loggia died years ago of Alzheimer's so may he rest in peace, whatever his actual personality was.
As for our Italian/American slang word of the day, I had a coworker from Joisey who said the word was "gatso", or perhaps "gazzo". That was how they said it in his part of northern New Jersey.
Tony Soprano named his yacht "Stugats". I looked that up and came up with this:
It derives from Italian 'questo cazzo', which literally means 'this dick'. With a neapolitan dialect it is pronounced ''stu cazz'', or stugats.
There are many variations and theories as to the derivation of that word and its cognates, but that is of little value to the gentle readers of this blog who disdain Easterns and their use of language.
Aida Turturro (John is her cousin) was so perfect as Janice. One of the most despicable characters ever. I don't recall seeing her in anything else except "What About Bob?"
With Janice, you can see the wheels of greed turning in her head as she moved in on one hapless mob climber after another. I think she went through 3 of them - the creepy weirdo Richie Aprile (dead), then creepy weirdo Ralph (dumped, later dead), and finally she moved on poor Bobby Bacala (dead). Cold-blooded and manipulative just like the rest of her miserable family but she also had a compelling spark.
8 comments:
The closed captioning on that is interesting.
I didn't understand this. It's like they're speaking another language with my language.
It reminds me of being with my dad when I was young and he was speaking to the people he worked with. I couldn't understand a word of it. Like they're all from another planet using English differently to discuss things relevant to that other planet.
Norman Mailer described that in Ancient Evenings. The guy from the Delta hadn't a clue about what the elites in the military class found so funny. Each Egyptian word had a different meaning, every word a double entendre with mysterious meanings. The character was resolved to learn them all. The way Egyptian was spoken differently among distinct classes. The same language foreign to each level.
So did Lee Mendelson working with Charles Schultz on Snoopy specials. The kids heard the adults "wah wah wah wah wah." That's exactly how I felt when my dad talked shop with his associates. Even so late as age twenty-two, I recall standing there among them thinking, "Man, this is fucked up. I don't understand a single word of these things they are talking about so earnestly. I don't get why they become so agitated and why they find things so funny. I have no idea why this is so interesting to them. Oh well." Wah wah wah wah.
My language is normal. Theirs is weird.
And that happens in every language I try.
The deaf leave me in the dust with their whacked way of talking. While there I am left with my text book ways.
Today I looked up a common word in Spanish used on a television program. Tumbaburros
Except it is written
TUMBA
BURROS
So which is it? Tumbaburros or tumba burros. It's printed as the last one, two words, "tomb donkey."
While together tumbaburros means "dictionary" in Mexican slang. Apparently.
And they're playing some weird word game. So it must be weird common urban dictionary.
How you get "urban dictionary" from "tomb donkey" is beyond me.
And that's what this video is like. In English. It's Italian mafia in America spoken in English. An entire world of its own.
I hated Feech and loved it when his just desserts were served up. I didn't like him in Scarface, either. I wonder if he's an asshole in real life? He certainly plays a convincing one on screen. This scene is one of the few times I was on Paulie's side.
I liked Robert Loggia in T. H. E. Cat, which I watched when it was first aired. Then for a long time, nothing. I see he was in Prizzi's Honor and Scarface, but I don't remember him in either one. I do remember him as Feech, and while I know nothing of what he was like in real life, I am willing to attribute his unpleasantness to the role he was playing. It took me a couple of viewings of the entire Sopranos series for me to be able to separate Aida Turturro's work from her character Janice and the same thing with Nancy Marchand and Livia. Their acting was so good I couldn't stand the sight of them on the screen. Now that's good acting.
Anyway, Robert Loggia died years ago of Alzheimer's so may he rest in peace, whatever his actual personality was.
As for our Italian/American slang word of the day, I had a coworker from Joisey who said the word was "gatso", or perhaps "gazzo". That was how they said it in his part of northern New Jersey.
Tony Soprano named his yacht "Stugats". I looked that up and came up with this:
It derives from Italian 'questo cazzo', which literally means 'this dick'. With a neapolitan dialect it is pronounced ''stu cazz'', or stugats.
There are many variations and theories as to the derivation of that word and its cognates, but that is of little value to the gentle readers of this blog who disdain Easterns and their use of language.
Aida Turturro (John is her cousin) was so perfect as Janice. One of the most despicable characters ever. I don't recall seeing her in anything else except "What About Bob?"
Another example of why that mighta been the best show ever put together. Well played.
With Janice, you can see the wheels of greed turning in her head as she moved in on one hapless mob climber after another. I think she went through 3 of them - the creepy weirdo Richie Aprile (dead), then creepy weirdo Ralph (dumped, later dead), and finally she moved on poor Bobby Bacala (dead). Cold-blooded and manipulative just like the rest of her miserable family but she also had a compelling spark.
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