Southerly by David Haywood

I think you need ECT before you can learn the bagpipes anyway.

First of all, welcome back from whatever hiatus has been keeping you from PA this time. Trust all is well.

Ukelele's have featured prominently in Wellington over the last few days, they demonstrate this song in honour of John Peel, ex-DJ.

WTF?

Jonty wrote:

I think you need EST before you can learn the bagpipes anyway.

I think you need EST and a lobotomy...

Don Christie wrote:

... welcome back from whatever hiatus has been keeping you from PA this time...

Cheers, Don. Two not-quite-finished-as-yet blogs on the story behind my hiatus are coming up soon.

Ukeleles have featured prominently in Wellington over the last few days, they demonstrate this song in honour of John Peel, ex-DJ.

Ah, what a splendid version of 'Teenage Kicks"!

By the way, I should have mentioned that this blog is dedicated to Gemma Gracewood from The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, who has kindly been helping me with my questions about the physics behind ukulele intonation.

Colin Granger wrote:

WTF?

Dude, haven't you ever been lying in bed thinking how over-rated Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will' is -- really a very distasteful propaganda flick -- and then started thinking, hey, wouldn't it be cool if someone watched this movie under the impression that it was a guide to learning how to play the volkszither?

No

WTF?

Dude, haven't you ever been lying in bed thinking how over-rated Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will' is -- really a very distasteful propaganda flick -- and then started thinking, hey, wouldn't it be cool if someone watched this movie under the impression that it was a guide to learning how to play the volkszither?

No

Dude, you got some guy, all the way from Ireland, to make his first post on System, just to say 'WTF' at you. Your entire career has been working towards this point.

Emma:

Hadn't quite looked at it this way before, but maybe you're onto something.

I completely sympathize with Colin's "WTF"...

And that is why I loved the post... Thanks for warping my brain....

Dude, haven't you ever been lying in bed thinking how over-rated Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will' is -- really a very distasteful propaganda flick -- and then started thinking, hey, wouldn't it be cool if someone watched this movie under the impression that it was a guide to learning how to play the volkszither?

Not quite, although if I'd known what a volkszither was you'd be on the money.

Two not-quite-finished-as-yet blogs on the story behind my hiatus are coming up soon.

Oh, every time I see that GDP is on its way up I shudder at the thought of the input to this from the Haywood clan and BBQ associates. I suppose we should also be grateful...

I've heard that a definition of a Gentleman is one who knows how to play the bagpipes...

and doesn't.

Magnificently demented post, David. I've always felt that the Slovenian group Laibach would make brilliant soundtrack music for Reifenstahl's Nazi era films. And the beauty of it would be that Laibach were so deliciously tongue in cheek. Remember "Live is Life"?

Here's the Laibach video of Live is Life. Deliciously pompous and overwrought but funny.

Takes your breath away...

My favourite Slovenian electro-industrial rockers.

I'm glad to see that my comedy connects with a couple of people, at least.

Charles Mabbett wrote:

My favourite Slovenian electro-industrial rockers...

Wow, I had not seen the video to 'Live is Life' before -- completely outstanding, and brilliantly funny! By the way, in case Southerly readers haven't heard the original song (sort of a sing-along Bob Marley rip-off by German band 'Opus') then I can direct them here:

I once met a Greek woman who told me that she wished Greece would invade Slovenia, because "Slovenia isn't a proper country". She also said that the Greeks would never get around to it because "there is too much democracy in Greece". Later on she told me that it was illegal to use the word 'Britain' -- you had to say 'United Kingdom'.

Wonderful stuff. I hadn't seen the completely cheesy Opus video before.

I tell you what. If Greece invaded Slovenia, Laibach would fight to the last drop of blood. Those guys are hard - all that tramping around the Alps in moustaches, tweed jackets and knee high leather boots.

And trumpets. I forgot trumpets.

And those hats with felt bits on the back. VEry chic.