In today’s Latin class, Magister Leon handed out a fun little weekend exercise. It’s an English to Latin translation of a popular American hip-hop song heard at most social gatherings (especially karaoke bars, weddings, and your average carousal) since the 1990s.

Do you know what song this is? If you give up, click the “more” link at the end of the Latin passage to see my English translation.

“magnae clūnēs mihi placent, nec possum dē hāc rē mentīrī
vōs enim, amīcī meī, nōn potestis negāre -
quando puella venit mediō corpore gracile
sub quō manifestus globus est -
īnflammat animōs virōrum…”
-Vir quī multa miscet

More »

Woke up in the 20s
There were flappers and fruits in white suits
It was right before the crash
We got thrashed throughout the 30s
Queuing up for soup in scabby sores
And they sent us off to war
We came back in the 40s
There were wheelchairs, guns and tickertape
We poured it on the floor, we made love to the interstates
We got shiftless in the 50s
Holding hands and going steady
Twisting into dark parts of large Midwestern cities
Tripped right through the 60s with some blissful little hippie
Some Kennedys got shot while you were screwing San Francisco
The 70s got heavy we woke up on bloody carpets
Got tangled up in gas lines
I guess that’s where it started
The 80s almost killed me
Let’s not recall them quite so fondly
Some Kennedy od’d while we watched on MTV
In the 90s we were wired and well connected
Put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested

We got to start it off with a positive jam.

-Positive Jam, The Hold Steady

I finally uploaded the pictures from JigGsaw’s March 13th show at Cowboy Monkey.

Click over here to my Flickr for the rest of the set.

If you like what you see, come check out JigGsaw for yourself at these upcoming shows:

And…

A fun music video from the band Crankdaddy.

This past month, JigGsaw played two shows at Champaign’s own Mike & Molly’s. Needless to say, they rocked. If you’re going to be around the Champaign-Urbana area on Saturday March 13th, come out to Cowboy Monkey and see JigGsaw for yourself. The show starts at 10pm with a $5 cover and minimum age of 19 for entry. Rounding out the evening’s lineup are The Poets Dance (Rockford, IL) and Vanattica (Champaign, IL).

More photos here on my Flickr page.

JigGsaw played at a house party in Urbana this Saturday. Luckily for me, the house was a stone’s throw from my apartment.

I decided to bring over my fisheye and shoot a roll of film at the party.

Click over to my Flickr page for the full set.

Camera/Film Info:

New photos from JigGsaw’s recent performance at the 5th annual Pygmalion Festival.

Click here for the full set of photos!

Last Saturday, jigGsaw played a short set for WEFT Fest, the annual fundraiser for WEFT 90.1 FM. The event was originally scheduled to take place outside on the Mike and Molly’s patio. However, the rain made that impossible, and they moved the last few bands next door into the WEFT studio. Even though everyone was looking forward to being on the patio, the studio was still a lot of fun. There was some concern as to how loud things were going to get, but that soon passed. The room where they played was lined from floor to ceiling with CDs, which (surprisingly) helped to deaden the sound.

Given all the changes and disorder that went on before the gig, I’m surprised that things went as well as they did. I think everyone had a good time; still I hope that WEFT Fest gets some better weather next time around.

I came across France Gall when I was looking up some old Scopitone videos on YouTube. Gall had quite a long singing career that spanned over thirty years. In 1966, Gall became a controversial public figure when her single “Les Sucettes” (“Lollipops” in English) was released. At the time, she was too young and naïve to understand the double meaning of her lyrics, which were written for her by Serge Gainsboug. Upon realizing the meaning of the lyrics, Gall reportedly was “mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone”.

Here are a few of my favorite France Gall videos. You may recognize the song, “Laisse tomber les filles” (“Forget the Girls” in English) since the same music was used by the American group April March in their song “Chick Habit”. Again, Gall’s lyrics were composed by Serge Gainsbourg, as were most of Gall’s early songs. Having her lyrics written by a middle aged man made the message of Gall’s songs far different than those of her fellow teenage pop stars. This is especially true of “Laisse tomber les filles”.

Eddie is about to play a solo acoustic set. It’s pretty nice not having to lug all the gear.