21 December 2010

In Praise of the Unintelligible

I love to listening to unintelligible things -- a lot.

Sometimes, with Chinese television running in the background, I'm lulled by the sing-songiness of words I do not know, and delighted when it's punctuated with an occasional borrowed English phrase or notable name.

It works for wailing saxophone and screaming electric guitars too. Likewise speaking in tongues and those songs that cry out from the deserts of the middle east.

I love them all. Oh: And the Bushes! It's always fun to listen to one of the Bushes at the podium, talking to the press. Dubya's good, but his Dad can be deliciously cryptic.

Typically, attempting to grok this nonsense is its own reward. I feel no need to transcribe it. Meaning can almost always be felt. But now I come to the coup de grĂ¢ce. It's perhaps the greatest snippet of unintelligible jabber EVAR!! (I just might make it my ringtone)

I could listen to it again and again and again.
(and, sadly, have)

I present: a few seconds of Miley Cyrus tripping her head off from salvia on the occassion of her 18th birthday (while, of course, being video'd by a "good friend" for the all the interwebs to see).

And here's my first attempt at a transcription:
Wha did the ...
What did they make me do?
Ahr rehleh wuh da know that.
Al mon de be a ahgo fit.
They got a little de make me just sue.
If I give ya vuhduh vuhduh den,
they don't know the interneg all day.
Oh we ayo item.
I don't wanna go lah wha lah.
(at first listen this seemed completely unintelligible, but upon re-re-reflection ... it might just be a letigious warning to her companion with the vid phone)

No comments: