how strange, how strange

[darkoshi]

I spent the first several minutes of this video trying to determine if there was a problem with my browser, or if the video aspect was really supposed to be nearly 3:1, with parts of people's heads cropped out of view. It seems to be that way on purpose, like a wide screen movie.

"The HU - Yuve Yuve Yu" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: The HU - Yuve Yuve Yu
Posted by: The HU
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE


I wonder what these round cylindrical fibrous things on the top of the cliff are:
https://youtu.be/v4xZUr0BEfE?t=147

Of the 2 videos by that band which I've watched (there's also this one with motorcyles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc ), I'm not sure how I feel about their lyrics. Taken one way, they're cool in a "don't mess with me" kind of way. Taken another way, I'm not sure.


This video has throat-singing *and* bagpipes:

"Hunnu Guren - Batzorig Vaanchig & Auli" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Hunnu Guren - Batzorig Vaanchig & Auli
Posted by: AuliEtnotranss
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vztRqe_CHC0



I suppose that drone-mounted cameras make these kind of videos easier to film these days. I wonder how they did it in the old days... helicopters, hang gliders, small aircraft?

Vegan Bagpipes - oh yay, there is such a thing. Maybe... or maybe just a non-hide drum... boom boom, boom boom...

Comments

[nozomi604]

When I was in Edinburgh, they even had vegan haggis in a tourist shop. Then again, I can't imagine that traditional haggis is in very high demand among tourists.

That bagpipe page is fascinating! If you do take it up, though, be careful about fungus getting into the pipes. https://www.livescience.com/55842-bagpipe-lung-hypersensitivity-pneumonitis.html

[darkoshi]

Bagpipes would be fun to try, and I'm curious what they are like close up, but considering that I haven't had any notable successes on the few other instruments I've tried, I think I probably wouldn't be very good at them. I'd end up making a bunch of discordant noise. :D

[fayanora]

The problem with bagpipes is that bagpipers tend to get a disease called "piper's lung" or "bagpipe lung."

[darkoshi]

It sounds scary, but doesn't really seem to be that common. All the top search results are about one man who died from it.

But that's another benefit of synthetic/non-animal bagpipes - they have a zipper for opening it up and airing it out:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37152871

"If you have a sheepskin bag, I was told that I should wash it out with hot water and bleach every year. That should get all the germs killed and prolong the life of your instrument.

"Of course, most people today tend to play synthetic bags. I tell my players that they can unzip those to let the bag dry out."

[darkoshi]

I wouldn't have thought there was a vegan haggis, but I'd try it out of curiosity (though I've never been curious about what the real one tastes like).

[randomdreams]

I had the same reaction to The Hu: I thought it was interesting but the lyrics didn't leave me wanting to watch more.
I don't think shots like that used to be a thing, until drones got popular.

[darkoshi]

Found this, which has a bit of info on the band, but doesn't have a clear answer:
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Mongolian-folk-rock-band-The-HU-actually-nationalist-or-is-it-mocking-nationalists

To verbalize my feelings a bit more... taking pride in one's heritage, in order to lift oneself and others up, can be a good thing. But if it's being done to raise oneself (and one's people) above others, then it's not.

The references to Genghis Khan don't help, because that makes me think of a ruthless conqueror.

[fayanora]

Have you seen their video for their song "Wolf Totem"?

[darkoshi]

Yes, that was the other video I mentioned / linked to.

After reading something ambiguous in an article about the video this morning, I was like "Wait, are there really motorcycle gangs in Mongolia which ride their bikes across the plains??" So I did some searches, but got side-tracked reading about motorcycles gangs here in the U.S.

Now, I found this, which is about a totally different book by the same name, not the video:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Totem
But it has this interesting bit:
"The Mongolian writer Guo Xuebo, who is also a scholar of Mongolian literature and history, has said that the wolf was never a traditional totem used by ethnic Mongolians; on the contrary, the wolf is the biggest menace for their survival. ... On 20 January 2016,Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, the leading academic and research institution in Inner Mongolia, confirmed that the wolf totem does not exist in ethnic Mongolian's belief. The institution found that the presence of the remains of the ancient Mongolian totem worship in varying degrees among some tribes in ethnic Mongolian, but there is no unified ethnic totem for Mongolian people."

Now I found this... so there is at least one motorcycle gang in Mongolia, but in this video they ride through a city, not the plains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEaq9ziR-yA
"Mongolian Choppers Brotherhood 2014" - the video also shows people speaking in Mongolian, which is interesting to hear.

Some people have questioned the meaning of the swastikas seen in the videos, and some have replied that swastikas have a very different meaning & history in Asia versus the west. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika)

But this reddit thread has a link to a photo from the video with a closeup of a swastika ring next to a ring from the above Mongolian Choppers Brotherhood.
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/9xplih/the_hu_wolf_totem_mongolian_rock/

This thread has some additional interesting comments about it, and about how Genghis (Chinggis) Khan is felt about in Mongolia:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mongolia/comments/ac76yd/i_recently_came_across_music_from_the_mongolian/

I checked the video on Youtube at frame 5:12 where the closeup ring photo was taken from, and the swastika is now blurred out. I wonder if Youtube did that, or if the band's producers decided to. It's shown again at 5:17 (very briefly, but you can see it if you play the vid at .25 speed) and hasn't been blurred there. The fact that the video focuses in on the ring twice seems worrisome to me (they don't focus in on other details much), in that maybe it is a subtle shout out to neo-nazis. Or maybe the video producer intended to focus in on the Brotherhood ring (as a shout out to motorcyle gang enthusiasts), not the other ring, without realizing how negatively the swastika is viewed in the West. I don't know, but together with the lyrics, it's ambiguous enough to where I can't fully enjoy the songs.

One lyric which seems a positive sign to me is the following, as it seems to say the band doesn't think that Mongols are superior to others:
"Blindly declaring that only Mongols are the best"

[redsixwing]

Edit: Just read the above article, and it was an interesting take. I'll probably keep listening to their stuff, because the music itself is amazing, and keep an eye out for crossing the line between "hey, why aren't things better" and "we should be #1 and everyone else can suffer."

I think people used to use small aircraft for shots like those. Even as recently as Planet Earth, they had some making-of videos involving two-person craft and cameras on gimbals. Fascinating stuff.

[darkoshi]

See my above comment for more interesting links that I found.

I really like the sound of their music too, and most of the video imagery is awesome. But I'm still unclear about what message they want to make with their song lyrics. Then again, my knowledge of Mongolian history & the current state of affairs in the country is very little.