61–70 of 88 posts
I can't for the life of me remember where I had originally seen this video, but the version I remember seeing was this, which looks like a (visual) remix and is the far more nonsensical (and memorable) one, IMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8
You saw it on reddit, a while ago.
I knew what site, just not how to spell it
Pretty much the entirety of the Cocteau Twins discography is this. A few Enya songs as well. Also: "Bork, bork, bork!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo EDIT: Let's be honest here, quite a few ordinary pop songs are also gibberish masquerading as coherent language. EDIT: Richard Feynman even got into the act once as a young man. Ironically, he was an English speaker doing gibberish Italian: http://www.bookra…
> Pretty much the entirety of the Cocteau Twins Well, there's some discussion whether she invented a language to sing in or if she was just off her tits on heroin and LSD. For the young 'uns: Early, not pleasant to listen to - ( http://youtu.be/AF-hic7hNpk ) Later, nicer - ( http://youtu.be/WORzTWzwtho ) Her singing 'live' recorded from VH1 to show it's not just post-production ( http://youtu.be/Xo-vh_q1xQQ ) Very li…
The difference?
I'm amazed at how well he has the sounds down. I'd never peg him as Italian, and I probably wouldn't realize it was gibberish until the backup singers did it slowly; I'd think I was just failing to get it, like listening to Dylan on a bad day. I'm amazed at the contrast with British actors trying to do American accents, which never fool me; is it easier to do it with gibberish, or is he just unusually good at mimicki…
I must add that sounds in languages are a very strange thing. When my american friends who don't speak italian try to say something in fake-italian, sometimes the accent is so strange that I tend to assume they were speaking in english and I just didn't hear well. Then, only after they make it very explicit that they are trying to speak or sound italian, I change my mental setup and can guess what they are saying. Otherwise to me it sounds like something indecipherable. It is kind of accessing different areas of the brain based on which language I'm listening to. Which doesn't happen with actual americans or italians since in that case the accent itself is obvious and makes me switch immediately.
Now though I can really appreciate how close his accent is to the american accent.
But in general, I would say that this is a good occasion to look him up on youtube or any online (or not) music store, his music and his lyrics are great. He also made an album with Mina, who is recognized pretty much unanimously as the best italian female singer, ever.
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When I've been aware of it, it's never been convincing — but of course you're right; if I'm unaware of it and it did fool me, I wouldn't know. Let's amend the above to "which usually don't fool me."
A similar effect happens with CGI. Most (tech savvy) people think that they can smell CGI from a mile away, but the vast majority of CGI these days is subtle and mundane (put another helicopter in the background there; we didn't have budget to rent two), and slips right by unnoticed. It's when the CGI is something obviously impossible and also the focus of a scene that viewers actually notice.
This is dependent on how much physics is going on in the scene, and how good the person's intuitive sense of physics is. I think a lot of that's been damaged by seeing bad CGI in films. One disturbing thing I've noticed is that before widespread CGI, animator's sense of physics seemed to be getting better as animation technique developed. Now, it seems to be getting worse.
This hoax was supposed to be "good" CG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B61_4NCebWc
But besides the various problems, the physics of the bird is just flat-out wrong. When birds of prey snatch something off the ground, they are relying on having enough momentum, such that after the snatch, they still have forward motion to maintain airspeed. The portrayed bird in the video doesn't have any forward motion just after the snatch. No forward motion means no lift. There's nothing holding it up. The flapping wings are horizontally oriented and flapping vertically, so they're primarily thrusting forwards. (Birds with little to no forward motion can flap their wings to thrust away from the ground, but then their wings are oriented vertically, and the flapping is horizontal.) I can only assume the animators think "levitation rays" come off the bottom of the wings.
That's egregious, but it's what passes for "good" CG nowadays. Then you have the totally execrable stuff in Hollywood blockbusters. (Star Wars ep. 1-3)
I'm amazed at how well he has the sounds down. I'd never peg him as Italian, and I probably wouldn't realize it was gibberish until the backup singers did it slowly; I'd think I was just failing to get it, like listening to Dylan on a bad day. I'm amazed at the contrast with British actors trying to do American accents, which never fool me; is it easier to do it with gibberish, or is he just unusually good at mimicki…
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> Folks seem unbelievably harsh on accents they know not to be the native one, which is every time a famous actor does an accent Either Hugh Laurie isn't famous, or you don't have any idea he's British. ;) Every time he plays House, he's doing a fake American accent. He just does it really, amazingly well. Here's Hugh Laurie as the Prince of Wales (the total idiot) in a short segment from the series "Blackadder the T…
Great example, and I believe complementary to my observation. If talk show interviews are to be believed then when Hugh Laurie began on House he wasn't famous in America, and most people didn't have any idea he was British. The show was a hit, everyone loved him, and then it's far too late for anyone to erroneously pick apart his flawless accent. It's almost impossible to imagine, but if Hugh Laurie had been popular…
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From what I understand, he's not saying that, the anger is towards the lack of communication. English sounds the way he speaks, but the tone (and the question) is unrelated. As an italian, I can tell you American English may sound many ways but I'd never define it "angry".
Out of curiosity, how would you describe it? As a American I can't get enough distance to tell.
There was a story posted here quite a while ago about a short movie made entirely in "english-like" language. I think it featured a couple arguing. Maybe someone can help me out here? It gave me the eery feeling of being a young child again listening to adults talking around me.