My first song scorecard for the iPhone Ocarina: Bunkócska. In spite of the Hungarian title, this is a Russian revolutionairy song with a folklore tune, but I couldn’t find the original title originally called ‘Dubinushka’ (Дубинушка, meaning ‘little club’ – thanks, Kálmán). Alas, the Hungarian variant only barely resembles the Russian original. Here is a link to the ‘conventional’ (Hungarian) notes and lyrics. 

What the hell is that, you might find yourself asking. Read the rest of this entry »

From the many possible interpretations of the title, the only valid is the following: this is my new guitar tuning – instead of the usual EADGBE. I got inspired by Joe’s play (to be accurate: he actually uses DADGAD) at the Omnia concert (and on their CDs) and as I found a nice introduction on using this tuning in my ancient, Muszty-Dobay guitar textbook, I decided to try it. I must say that I am amazed, first of all, how easy it is to get into using it and, secondly, how interesting and entirely new tunes it can bring to familiar songs.

Image: by jakobtischler

Köszönöm, már omntam.

For the unfortunate not understanding Hungarian: Don’t worry it’s just a stupid pun on words the alleged fun of which probably Hungarians themselves wouldn’t get. But that stupid joke just keeps occupying my mind each time I think of Omnia.

For the rest, Omnia is an awesome band  playing “pagan folk” or “neo-celtic” sound. Whatever you want to call it, it sounds really groovy. I even bought a CD after the concert, something I probably didn’t do for a decade…

Ah, yes, the concert. It took place yesterday at the feet of the European Commission’s headquarters, the Berlaymont building in Brussels. Somewhat weird location for some medieval pagan hard rock, you might think. But then you also might ask why the spokesperson to a commissioner is playing guitar in such a band in his free time. Ah, by the way, thanks for the invitation Joe…   

If you do speak Dutch, you can continue reading more about the concert here.

Imádom Zoránt, sőt, ezt a számot is csípem (igaz, inkább a felújított változatát) – de ez a verzió mai füllel nézve kicsit riasztó. Mit csináljunk, tempora mutantur…

ESC 2007: Eclectism rules. Sometimes a bit too much.