Vitas (Russian singer)

[AeonGrey]

Any of you heard of this guy?  Pay attention at about 1:06

[Acriku]

Holy crap that is a high voice. Catchy tune though ;) Anyone else read along the Russian caption to see how they pronounce words?

[Tatar Khan]

Yeah he is made fun of by Russian comedians over the high voice.

[Dante]

Eh, it sounds quite good. The hoods on the musicians in the video are a bit creepy though.

[Dragoon Knight]

So yeah... Dante sent me a link to this video on MSN.  I shall post the transcript.

Dante says:

This was posted in Fed2k, did you see it?

Dragoon Knight says:

*Clicks link*

Dragoon Knight says:

He looks crazy.  And Russ-

(Reaches 1:06)

Dragoon Knight says:

You owe me:

1 x New Window

2 x New Ear Drums

Dante says:

*giggle*

Dragoon Knight says:

But I'll be damned if the tune isn't catchy.

Dragoon Knight says:

If only I could HEAR IT.

Dragoon Knight says:

OR ANYTHING.

I swear that man is crazy.  I mean, look at that smile - no sane person smiles like that!  And what the seven hells is with the hooded accordion players of woe?

*Bleed*

[Dante]

Ah, fun times, fun times. He was wearing headphones too. I hope the volume was turned up. >:D

[Kokiri-Mentat]

  wow, haven't seen or heard of him for a year or two now.  Yea, he sings way too high for a guy. Is he a ca strati?  It's very--what is the word?--avant guard.  Every video I've seen of him involves hooded musicians of doom.

*edit*

no hoods here. :D

[Dante]

Or fish. And while I don't actually know whether he's a castrati, I would find it very unlikely.

[Kokiri-Mentat]

  yes very unlikely.  but that is a freakish voice.

here's him w/ hair.

[nemafakei]

Please note: one castrato, two castrati.

[Kokiri-Mentat]

  hmmm...my brain is having trouble dealing w/ the fact that two of my history teachers were wrong on this....but linguistically it seems to make sense.....and just checked dictionary.com.

plural can be either "castrati"  or "castratos"  but I prefer "castrati".    thanks nema ;)

[Dante]

Please note: one castrato, two castrati.

I have dishonoured myself.

Seppuku!

[Dunenewt]

Whenever I see the words Russian singer, I always think of Tatu for some reason.  Now that video was best watched muted.

[Kokiri-Mentat]

I have dishonoured myself.

Seppuku!

wow, Dante.  Cool Seppuku sketch.  I always heard it called Hara-kiri, but it's the same thing I believe.

[SandChigger]

Same result, but difference in usage.

(Is this board Unicode compliant? Let's see! ... I guess not. Time to cheat....OK, screw it.)

切腹 (seppuku) is the more Chinese word/pronunciation, and the one more commonly used now. The characters mean CUT + STOMACH, and the word includes more of the nuance of the ceremony of the act. 腹切り (hara-kiri) is the more Japanese version, and literally means something like "belly-cutting". I can't remember the last time I heard it actually used.

(The Chinese/Japanese distinction is like that between Latin & Greek and Anglo-Saxon vocabulary in English.)

FWIW.