The MousePod - MousePod #28 - Swing Street

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

What if I won the point instead?

Check this out. One of many online. At one point they say "the Spanish R sounds nothing like the English R". If you find me a pronunciation site that says otherwise, I'll eat my hat.

Fine. You win. I said "unwinnable" when I should have said "retarded".

Since you don't want to drop the subject, I will reveal that I purposely pronounced the title of the song to match Nat 'King' Cole's pronunciation (how's that for a peek behind the curtain?).

I'm certainly not fluent, but I do know enough Spanish to know what an r sounds like.

Did you like the song? I did.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by mousepod

Fine. You win. I said "unwinnable" when I should have said "retarded".

Since you don't want to drop the subject, I will reveal that I purposely pronounced the title of the song to match Nat 'King' Cole's pronunciation (how's that for a peek behind the curtain?).

I'm certainly not fluent, but I do know enough Spanish to know what an r sounds like.

Did you like the song? I did.

Jeez, since when is it retarded to want to pronounce things correctly? How could I have known you did it on purpose? (If that's even true. ) I didn't mean to out you or "ruin the magic" or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a ton of emails on the subject.

I love Nat King Cole's voice but, like GD, I just can't handle the way he sings that. That's all.

No harm meant, hopefully none done.

[mousepod]

I didn't say that wanting to pronounce things correctly was retarded, I said that beating the dead horse of the argument as you guys seemed to want to do was retarded.

I get that you didn't like the way that Nat pronounces his Spanish words. I'll bet that others felt that way, too. I also bet that the hundreds of thousands of people that bought his three Spanish language albums (including many in Latin America) could see past his pronunciation.

From the Washington Post Online:

Dallas, Tex.: My parents, from Latin America, love Nat King Cole. They always played his Spanish albums. I have spoken to other Hispanics who say the same thing. He was the first to attempt this and the people loved him for it. More artists today should try this approach.
Carole Cole: I agree. I think it's interesting to me that this was another area in which I believe my father was a pioneer. You might be interested to know that in his travels throughout Latin America he was received with opened arms and an enormous amount of affection. For instance, when he first toured Brazil it seemed the population of Rio de Janeiro turned out en masse throwing roses at his feet to walk on, and he and my mother were asked to stay with the then-president of Brazil in the Brazilian palace. It's also interesting that he attempted to record in a number of other languages which needless to say, further endeared him to other cultures. He recorded Autumn Leaves in Japanese, which you can see in the documentary. I believe he recorded a tune here or there in Italian, French. And I imagine he would have done more in this area if he'd had the time.

From Cubanow.net:

His performances were such a hit, he packed the nightclub, the reviews were overwhelmingly favorable, requests for his shows to go on were so many, that Tropicana’s entrepreneur, Rodney, with his good artistic-commercial instinct, understood that in Nat King Cole’s case, the old saying about second parts were never good wouldn’t prove true and booked him again for the next season.

The horse is dead.

(and it's "Fawlty" Towers)

[Alex]

If it helps, I know precisely what a Spanish r sounds like but I seem to be physiologically incapable of producing that sound.

So team together and make fun of me!

[innerSpaceman]

Oh, and I thought the Nat King Cole song was too cool for school. I don't know that the controversy's all about ... that's a smooth song.


I'm not much past that point in the show yet ... but I wanted to thank Jesse for that tangent-tip about the Clair de Lune restoration on that weird Fantasia DVD. I had forgotten all about it ... and it was certainly worth seeing again. (Though I don't buy that it was excised from Fantasia due to time constraints. It's only 2 minutes long ... which is itself why it doesn't fit in with any of the other pieces there.)

I never want to see that footage as "Blue Bayou" again, blecch. Oh well, we got a good restaurant name out of it.

[wendybeth]

It's not "Farty Towers?" I distinctly recall an episode where the sign said 'Farty', but maybe that was the Spanish version.

[Prudence]

I thought it was Flowery Twats, but I'm pretty sure that's French.

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by Prudence

I thought it was Flowery Twats, but I'm pretty sure that's French.

You know, despite having studied French for over five years, I still cannot say the French 'R'- you're supposed to sort of roll it over your tongue then end with a kind of retching sound, at least when combined with H's and such. Never could do it. Sober, anyways.

[Prudence]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

You know, despite having studied French for over five years, I still cannot say the French 'R'- you're supposed to sort of roll it over your tongue then end with a kind of retching sound, at least when combined with H's and such. Never could do it. Sober, anyways.

I could never get that whole back-of-the-throat thing in French class. But now that I'm trying to sing in Italian with a tongue-flippy "R" I'm all about the French "R".

[Snowflake]

Well, call me Kay Fwancis, I can't even do Amewican Awwwws, forget Spanish, French or Catalan.