As the organizer says of us: "Braving the elements to show their support for the 2nd year . . . . We are all excited to see them again . . . . . Come on down and show your support . . . . ". We think maybe it won't be so cold this year, and our fingers and hands will do what we tell them to.
By fnord12 | March 30, 2009, 11:47 AM | Music|Link
Puns. This is why i'm always laughing at parts in chinese movies that don't seem funny in the subtitles. That and the subtitles lie to you.
Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon.
A YouTube children's song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more. Stores are selling grass-mud horse dolls. Chinese intellectuals are writing treatises on the grass-mud horse's social importance. The story of the grass-mud horse's struggle against the evil river crab has spread far and wide across the Chinese online community.
Not bad for a mythical creature whose name, in Chinese, sounds very much like an especially vile obscenity. Which is precisely the point.
The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China's authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.
It has also raised real questions about China's ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet -- a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world's largest cyber-community.
Here's a translation of the lyrics i found online:
There is a herd of Grass Mud Horses*
In the wild and beautiful Ma Le Desert**
They are lively and intelligent
They are fun-loving and nimble
They live freely in the Ma Le Desert
They are courageous, tenacious, and overcome the difficult environment
Oh lying down Grass Mud Horse
Oh running wild Grass Mud Horse
They defeated river crabs*** in order to protect their grass land
River crabs forever disappeared from Ma Le Desert
*Sounds similar to "fuck your mom"
**Sounds similar to "your mom's cunt"
**Sounds similar to "harmony" which is what Chinese bloggers say when their site has been censored - it's been harmonized. It's in reference to President Hu Jintao's repeated calls for creating a "harmonious society".
In honor of St. Patrick's Day coming up on Tuesday and in reference to the renewed violence by the splinter IRA groups this past week...
Zombie by the Cranberries
Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying...
In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo...
Another mother's breaking,
Heart is taking over.
When the violence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...
In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a...
Our love is, like water
Pinned down and abused for being strange
Our love is, no other
Then me alone for me all day
Our love is like water
Pinned down and abused, ehe
All over you, all over me
The sun, the fields, the sky
I've often tried to hold
The sea, the sun, the fields, the tide
Pay me now, lay me down, oho
Our love is like water
Pinned down and abused for being strange
Our love is like little angels
Pinned down and abused, yeah!
All over you, all over me
The sun, the fields, the sky
I've often tried to hold
The sea, the sun, the fields, the tide
Pay me now, lay me down
Pay me now, pay me now
Lay me down. lay me down. lay me down
All over you, all over me
All over you, all over me, yeh
Pay me now, lay me down, down
Pay me now, pay me now
Lay me down. Lay me down, lay...
All over you, all over me
The sun, the fields, the sky
I've often tried to hold
The sea, the sun, the fields, the tide
Pay me now, lay me down, down
Pay me now, pay me now
Lay me down. Lay me down. Lay...
Yeah heah, heah... Yeah, yeah, yeah... oh