Tatar fever

Last events prevented from making a less “oh, the world is annoying me” post. I still have to post and re-write some of the events that took place before the New Year. Some conversations I had with people which really made me think.

But I'm not going to talk about that. I am going to talk about my recent obsession with Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, and Tatar culture and language in general.

It all started when I was doing some research about patriotic songs. I went to Youtube and found a patriotic song from Tatarstan. I was touched by it and found it very beautiful. I have a problem with patriotic things in general as well as with nationalism etc. But this one was really nice. I did mention it in my post about songs.

Well, after adding it to my favorites, Youtube put in my "recommendations" box, a song by Landysh Nigmetzhanova (Ландыш Нигметжанова) called “Siu” (Cию.)*. It's extremly "pop-dancing-in-the-nightclub" kinda thing. But I couldn't stop listening to it O_o. Now I'm even trying to sing along. Of course it is pathetic, since I don't speak Tatar and don't even have the lyrics. Well, my shower doesn't know that.



After that, there was another link to another Tatar song. At first I wasn't thrilled by the song itself, but by the video. It is very well done, looks like a short movie which tells the stories of various characters only through images. Really nice and as a wannabe filmmaker I thought “I wish I had made that”. The singers are Färidä (Фәридә) and Alsu (Алсу), the song is called Èz oem (Єз оем)*. I won't spoil it for you. You can check here:



Afterwards, I started liking the song a lot too. That's how it happens with me sometimes, I need some time. I really like this music video a lot. I think it's great.

Anyways, soon I saw the link to another song, this time by Fättaxova (Фэттахова)* called Tugan yak (Туган як). Now, that one was really surprising to me because I heard it before. Yep, I heard it, I don't remember where was it, but I think it was quite a while ago. So it was a very pleasant reunion. The video posted in Youtube is of bad quality, but there is another one which has the same song as background which the quality is better.

The singer's video:



And the song, although I really had some restrictions to this movie. Well, whatever, the sound is good:



(Note: there is a girl by the end of the video who looks so Brazilian, it is almost weird to me. She even has hair like mine... maybe she's my lost cousin O_o)

So, that is how the Tatar fever started. After that I started reading about Tatarstan and Tatar culture. I also discovered that Tartar sauce, while delicious, is not Tatar. And Brazilian waxing is not popular in Brazil at all. I don't even know why people give things names which suggest a false origin like French kiss, Russian dressing, French fries, Persian pastry etc. Actually, I do have a clue, but I don't really want to talk about it.

Back to Tatarstan. I really got into it. So much that if you asked right now “Would you like to go to Chennai or Kazan?”. I would have to stop to think. I would probably pick Chennai, because Tamilnadu is an old love. But I would pause. Well, that's why God invented “Google Earth” where I can fake a trip to Kazan. It was very nice. :)

Because I said that I won't be writing about annoying things (although I did almost start with the Tartar sauce thing...), I won't talk about how irritating some of those silly youtube comments can be. If it is not an Western European / North American pop song or something in English people already start with some sort of ridiculous pseudo-ethnic / anthropological / sociological political superficial discussion. It's pathetic! But, as I said, I won't talk about it now. Hehehe...


Enjoy my Tatar fever and if you are Tatar or know a lot about Tatar culture, please help me with some lyrics, songs, culture, you name it. Pretty please




Well, best regards to all.

*My transliteration following Wikipedia. Hope it's an ok transliteration. :)

P.S.: I REALLY want to change this blog's template... I just don't know how to do that right, since I like blogger's gadget system. Can any of you help me? :)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Freedom and Music

Freedom and Music

I can't believe it, it's over. Yes, it is. School now only in March.
It's a bittersweet kind of happiness. These will probably be my last summer vacations while in university. Next year, around this month, I'll be graduated and looking for a job or, if God permits, I'll already have one. Or I might be in Dubai. We never know for sure.
In the summer vacations I'll keep tutoring and, hopefully, I'll get a part-time job to earn some very necessary money. Things were never so hard around here. I mean... they've been. But I was too young back then and the impact of it was slightly different.
I also would like to finish cleaning up my room, give away many of my books, clothes etc. Write letters and email to dear ones and stop disappearing so much. I already disappear from people geographically close to me, imagine the ones who are far away? I also want to edit the movie we made in Japan. I just need some technical stuff and I'm set to start.
And write. I've been having a lot of inspiration for this blog, but very little courage to start hahaha. I also haven't written since I was too busy with school papers. A lot of things inside my mental rave. I've never been so outraged with life and people than now. I really need my sanity back. This weekend I heard some things which really enraged me. But I'll leave that for later.
Now it's “silly light stuff” time:

So... I love music. Many and many kinds of music. I always carry around my poor mp3 player which only has 256MB, but I love it and it's always with me. This week, in order to study and go back and forth from school, I changed the songs a little. Thing is, my mp3 player decides by itself which order the songs are going to be played in. So full of personality, the little thing! Order is Song name, singer/group/movie name and, if possible, a Youtube link so you can also check them out:

Ah, a friend just read my post in Portuguese and asked me if I could add country of origin and language spoken in the songs. Okie dokie.


1.(Take it easy) Oorvasi – Tamil movie Kadhalan. (India / Tamil)

2.Bir Tamshy Zhas – Rakhat Turlykhanov (Kazakhstan / Kazakh)

3.Eomeona! (어머나 ) - Jang Yoon Jeong (장윤정) (South Korea / Korean)

4.Kenjinakka – Tamil movie Ilavattam (India / Tamil)

5.Futaride osake wo (二人でお酒を) – Michiyo Asuza (梓みちよ) (Japan / Japanese)

6.Azëm – Rakhat Turlykhanov (Kazakhstan / Kazakh)

7.Pechalnaya – Valik Gryshko (Belarus / Russian or Belarussian?? I still don't know that and that's a problem I have with all the songs from my dear Valik Gryshko. I don't know in which language he sings. I feel silly >_< Can anyone help?)

8.Appadi Podu – Tamil movie Gilli (India / Tamil)

9.Didi tera devar deewana – Hindi movie Hum Aapke Hain Koun (India / Hindi)

10.Oh podu (also known by other names) – Tamil movie Gemini (India / Tamil)

11.Kannamoochi – Tamil movie Kandukondaen Kondukondaen. (India / Tamil) Yes, that's really Aishwarya Rai.

12.Song from a Tajik dance performance featured in Kabul some time ago (of course). I'd love to know more about it, but the information in Youtube, where I first heard it and got it from, is either in Farsi or Tajik and I can't read it :(. I love the dance too. (? / Persian?)

13.Dupatta tera – Hindi movie Partner (India / Hindi)

14.Husaine Husaine – Tamil movie Uyirile Kalanthathu (India / Tamil)

15.Bitaqat Hub – Samira Said (Morocco / Arabic)

16.Tugan yagim watanim – patriotic song from Tatarstan. (Russia, Tatarstan / Tatar) . I have a problem with patriotic songs, but this one is very beautiful and no lyrics about killing anybody like many nationalistic songs tend to be. =)

17.Iskelmä ja kesä – Tommi Soidinmäki (Finland / Finnish)

18.El leila doub – Mustafa Amar (Egypt / Arabic)

19.Kalloori vaanill – Tamil movie Pennin Manathai Thothu. (India / Tamil)

20.Avara – meyxana song from Aqşin Fateh and Elshen Xezer. (Azerbaijan / Azeri)

21.Solei – Valik Gryshko (Belarus / That problem already spoken about and not yet solved)

22.Krasavica ubitaya – Valik Grishko (Belarus / Op. cit.)

23.Çal oyna – Dilşad Musayev. (Azerbaijan / Azeri)

24.Tiffer – Ursula (Estonia / Estonian) Yeah, just kill me :P

25.I'll never be Maria Magdalena – Sandra (Germany / English)

26.I know Sella – Valik Gryshko. (Belarus / Op. cit.)

27.Kátia Flávia, Godiva do Irajá – Fausto Fawcett (Brazil / Portuguese)

28.Na vecherinke – Strelki (Russia / Russian)

29.Pegasus Genzou – Opening song for anime Saint Seiya

30.Ashwa – Natacha Atlas (hard to say... Belgium? Yeah. I'll stick with Belgium / Arabic)

31.Shubra – Natacha Atlas (Belgium /Arabic)

32.Umiyuki – Jero (ジェロ) (Well, the singer is from the U.S.A but the song is from Japan... so I label it USA & Japan / Japanese)

33.Tozainanboku Hitori Tabi (東西南北ひとり旅) – Jero (ジェロ) (USA & Japan / Japanese)


Later I comment on them. Of course not all my favs are here, it's only 256MB I'm allowed to carry. Some have to go and others come.

Talk to you guys soon! ^_^




Clique aqui para este post em português!

Monday, December 8, 2008