(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Stupid thunderstorm. Can't watch DVD, can't do laundry, can't take bath, shouldn't be on computer (it's only the broke-ass one! the good one is locked down and unplugged!). Anyway, this is an entry I wrote (mostly) earlier today:

---

Horoscope of DOOM: Suddenly, everything's upside down. It may take a while to orient yourself again.

If you feel it, you usually say it -- or struggle mightily to stop yourself. It doesn't matter whether it's politically correct to bring the subject up, you're a big believer in total honesty. That goes double for today.


Okay, y'all? I have some questions about Braveheart. For starters: there's that whole thing with Murron being killed, and then Wallace kills the guy who kills her, and that night all the villagers start chanting his name. Now, according to the subtitles, they start chanting "Macaulish! Macaulish!" and end up chanting "Wallace! Wallace!" Say... what? Is "Macaulish" supposed to be, like, "McWallace" (son of Wallace, i.e., his dead father)? Because... I don't recall hearing "Macaulish" ever used in the movie before or after that scene.

Also: is that a... tail of something hanging in Mel Gibson's hair? You see it in the scene where they go burn the garrison and kill the prima noctes guy. It's the same color as his hair, and you don't see it much, but then there's the completely WHATEVER love scene with Sophie Marceau (which--seriously, don't get me started on the romance-novel unlikeliness of this), and he's leaning over her, and suddenly you see this CAT'S TAIL just hanging over his shoulder and ICK.

Cleo: why does Mel Gibson have what looks like... a cat's tail...? hanging down over his shoulder?

Vladimir: ...
Vladimir: I totally don't remember.

Cleo: I'm serious. He's leaning over her, with this rat's nest of hair, and there's this tail

Vladimir: and it isn't his hairdo?

Cleo: well, I mean, it's got to be, but...

Vladimir: hey, it was the fashion. like the sideburns in the 70s. chicks apparently dug that shit.

Cleo: okay, note to you? I do not dig cat tails when I am getting it on. Write that down.

Vladimir: does. not. dig. cat. tails. while. getting. it. on.

Meanwhile, I'm going through my backlog of new music, and I love these Alizée tracks I got off audiography--"Lui ou toi" and "Moi... Lolita." ("Abracadabra" is all right... the meowing is kind of strange, though.) I was (and I apologize for repeating myself all the time, but new folks are always coming in, and it's not like I can expect even the regulars to remember stuff like this) a Spanish major/French minor/crazy in undergrad, so I have a weak spot for stuff like this. (Even so... can I get a native French-speaker translation on "quand je donne ma langue aux chats"? Seriously, is it idiomatic? Because... literally translated, it kind of scares me.) It's also really interesting to listen to French music during a movie like Braveheart, I tell you what. Which reminds me, I have decided that my absolute most favorite character in this movie is Nicolette, the slutty blonde handmaid. I don't know why. Maybe it's because she seems like the character I'd end up being--sort of marginal, but in a girly-snarky way. Not French and slutty per se, I mean--you know, I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead here.


Linkspam:

Revenge of the Spoilers? (Note: does not actually include Star Wars spoilers. I mean, except the basic premise of the movie, which, if you're a Star Wars fan, has got to be obvious to you anyway.)

Filming of The Hobbit at least three years away.

Romance novel cover parodies. My favorites are Kangaroo Voyeurs and Dude, Where's My Sword? Look for a cameo by Colin Farrell, by the way.

Even scarier: awful covers that are apparently real.

And more covers that are real, including horror and... I don't even know what. foresthouse, this one made me think of you.

If you missed it the other night, Ewan McGregor and Jay Leno had a water pistol fight that ended with... well, just go look at the pictures. Not pictured: Ewan making faces at fellow guest Nicole Richie.



Quick report on fundraising: I haven't heard from Christina--I'm not sure anyone has, not for a day or so, which worries me a little. But y'all have been so great with the donations. I'm trying to decide if $5000 is too high a goal; I know we raised at least $3000+ last time, and that was without a final tally.

Also, spectralbovine has put together a chart of PayPal fees--that is to say, in order for Christina to get a dollar, you'd have to actually give $1.34, if you're interested in taking that into account.

Again, thanks so much for helping out. To log what you gave for the (new) 15M count, go here. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here.


Update: Christina is, in fact, in the hospital again.

Comments

[andromeda-77.livejournal.com]

You do realize that I'm going to have to watch Braveheart now, don't you?

And wtf - the filming for The Hobbit is 3 to 4 years away?? *cries*

[sydelbow.livejournal.com]

See, and just the mere mention of braveheart reminds me of the worst... let's call it a date, shall we... that ever I did have.

And Ive had some doozies.

[sydelbow.livejournal.com]

That waterfight is AWESOME. That's what I get for not watching Leno. I miss out. Someday, I will forgive myself.

But I will never forgive the author of such a book entitled, Momma's Baby, Daddy's Maybe.


UM WHAT!? NICE.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Also, how in the WORLD is that a romance novel?

[comedownstairs.livejournal.com]

How in the hell did I miss the water fight? *is pissed at self*

You can even see underwear at one point!

[andromeda-77.livejournal.com]

No idea if there's any truth to this - but it seems logical if you could find something on it. Here's the text I found:

Subject: RE: Folklore: Braveheart...again
From: GUEST,Mathieu Lacroix
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 08:29 PM

MacAulish ... If my memory is good MacAulish was one of the Scotland Pioneer who set scotland free to itself at very first. Maybe im wrong but i hope it's gonna help it.

And then I found this below it
Subject: RE: Folklore: Braveheart...again
From: Swave N. Deboner
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 01:04 PM

Guest Mathieu,

You're spot on. Straight from the script for the screenplay. It was indeed "MacAulish" that Campbell started shouting, with the crowd of Scotsmen joining in, shouting, "MacAulish! Macaulish! Wallace! Wallace!". But it sounded to me like they were saying, "Mac-Cue-lich." I have been unable to find any evidence that a surname such as MacAulish ever existed. I did come across one historical based website that implied that "MacCulloch" was used as a war cry. I'm not sure how MacAulish or MacCulloch would have been pronounced in those days (or even now, for that matter).


And here's the link. (http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=70688&messages=40)
(scroll down to almost the bottom)

[whisperwords.livejournal.com]

I always just assumed that they were shouting Murron's family name in her honor or something, and that it was "MacCulloch." Though the MacAulish thing is way more interesting.

[futureperfect.livejournal.com]

did you see the lastest post in sapphsmum from jillian?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh Jesus. Thanks for the heads up.

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

Hey Cleo have you checked out the new FT replacements yet? My personal fave is Snarky's Snarkfest, but I haven't really explored NatalieM's new one yet. The dark graphics kinda turned me off.
I was just wondering your opinion.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a huge amount of time, but I've been by the Princess Marie Chantal boards and the bibliophile boards--I think I'm registered on Snarkfest, but I'm not sure. Most people I'm talking to--see displacedsnark on Yahoo Groups--are saying that the dark graphics are a turn-off, yeah. And I feel bad, because she took a lot of shit trying to get that one up, too.

[sasha-davidovna.livejournal.com]

Heh. The first time I heard Abracadabra I was sitting in my third floor dorm room and thought it was a real cat and was so confused for a minute it wasn't even funny. I am just ridiculously thick at times. It's cool that you listen to Alize, though; very few Americans seem to have heard of her and she has pretty decent voice, really.

I can't stand the romance with the princess in Braveheart either, although at least it does explain how a guy like Edward II could produce a son like Edward III. :)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh.

I'd never heard of Alizée until that moment, and was just downloading various French singers on a whim (this is also when I got my Hélène Ségara and Natacha Atlas songs). I'd actually like to see more of her stuff--I'm not a very good judge of voices, but I like the songs' style in general.

Re: Ewan water fight

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

"Error: no such entry"

WAH.

Re: Ewan water fight

[ccaretta.livejournal.com]

Why did it go away?! *cries*

[maura-mellon.livejournal.com]

The guy on the cover of It Only Burns When I Pee looks just like Cary Elwes! That kind of hurts me inside.

[tabbyclaw.livejournal.com]

And one of the others looks like Sawyer. 'Splains some fan reactions, no?

[blackdiamants.livejournal.com]

Haha, me and my boyfriend were talking about the Hobbit movie earlier tonight. I did a short, fun little take (http://www.livejournal.com/users/blackdiamants/34624.html) on the book as a matter of fact.

[newsong.livejournal.com]

Dude, Where's My Sword! *giggle*

[darthtall.livejournal.com]

Ahh, Braveheart. The movie that taught my friends and me that the way to win a man's heart is to "give him a thistle and MAKE 'IM CRY!"

Dear Ewan, I love you plis to be calling me! ♥

[lafemmeluna.livejournal.com]

*sigh* And, of course, I own several of the books on the romance novel spoof page. Lmao! I'm a proud romance novel whore, 'tis true. And those spoof covers are fucking funny! Especially Scarlet Imposter! *dies*

[edda.livejournal.com]

Whose...uh, pelvis is that?/intrigued

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

and he's leaning over her, and suddenly you see this CAT'S TAIL just hanging over his shoulder and ICK.

...and at that moment a strange creature crawls onto Mel Gibson, and before he can blink it slices off his tail, crooning "Tailypo, tailypo. Now I've got my tailypo."

[basedonthebook.livejournal.com]

I wanna read "Smooth Pits."

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

when I give my language to the cats?

is that like "when I teach my cat to speak" or something? like the french equivalent of "when pigs fly?"

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

All I could think was "When I give my tongue/language to/like cats." The best idiom I could come up with was "When I stick my tongue out [like a cat]," but I seriously don't know.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey.

My favorites are Kangaroo Voyeurs

-Hee! I think the Kangaroo's just puzzled. "If I'm an Aussie mammal, what's up with the European vegetation and trees? Have I been shanghaied?!"

Wirrrn!

[edda.livejournal.com]

In reference to that quote, isn't "langue de chat" a kind of cookie? Not that I caught the rest of that phrase...

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

Yep the "langue de chat" is a kind of small, flat, chocolat free cookie.

[vladimirsever.livejournal.com]

I *died* of giggling when I saw the cover of "Halitosis". DIED.

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

"donner sa langue au chat"
Literally "to give up one's tongue to the cat", it's indeed idiomatic.
It's like when you're looking for an answer to a question and you can't find it. If you give up looking, you use that expression to let the person who asked the question know you're giving up.
Does that make sense ?

That being said, I have no idea where the saying comes from.

[rasputinaxp.livejournal.com]

Cat got your tongue?

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

Doesn't English use the same expression, "Cat's got your tongue"? Because yes, it is an idiomatic expression. The same as you don't really have a frog in your throat... I guess except when you're eating one... but that's not what the saying is about...

[screaming-mimie.livejournal.com]

and now mimie will ask a stupid question...

what email addy do i use to make a paypal donation? all i see on the donation page is the "alternatives to paypal" info. don't want to screw it up and have it go to the wrong email.

thanks.

[screaming-mimie.livejournal.com]

duh, i didn't even notice the make donation button.... see i told you it was a stupid question.

[dtwirler.livejournal.com]

Poo, the link to the water pistol fight doesn't work *is sad*

[kotszok.livejournal.com]

Not native but know it enough to speak wees ze peepol, and I'll go over when other people said, but isn't it something like "cat's got your tongue", 'xept she says the cat has her tongue... lol XD

[kotszok.livejournal.com]

OK, got an official, French "OUI" on that. It's "donner sa langue au chat" = "qu'on ne sait pas du tout, renoncer a chercher". So when you don't know, give up, can't say anything... That sort of thing! ;)

[gabsy.livejournal.com]

Finally! My first language has a purpose of LiveJournal!

"quand je donne ma langue aux chats" comes from the expressions "donner sa langue aux chats", which you say when try to guess/answer something but you give up.

Example:
- Guess what I did today?
- I don't know. You went skiing?
- No, guess again!
- You adopted a baby panda?
- Nooo! That's not it!
- Gahh, I don't know. Je donne ma langue aux chats.

So in the song, you could translate it to "when I give up guessing"...

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

Amazing what you can get across with a simple example. Why didn't I think of that.
Thank you, you explained that saying better than I did :)