(KOCH if you're Polish)
I think that's like "Miss Jackson, if you're nasty".
Presumably it means that the name "Tkacz" is Polish, and the original pronunciation in Polish sounds like something that an English speaker would transcribe as "koch." It seems to have been anglicized, however, probably based on the spelling, into a pronunciation more like "tax," which seems to be how he himself pronounces it.
I assume it means that he, being an American not particularly closely connected to the roots of his name, pronounces it 'tax', but is aware that the name originally had a very different pronunciation.
Though why 'Tkacz' would be pronounced 'tax' is beyond me. Isn't the usual American response to an unexpected pair of consonants to drop the first one, not the second?
Altogether too similar to the French restaurant in Echo Park, dear to one Beefo Meaty, spelled 'TAIX' and pronounced 'Tex'.
Because I'm like eleven years old, I giggle when I meet people who insist their last name Koch is pronounced "Cock". But the really kicker was the girl I dated whose last name read "Shenk" but the family insisted it was pronounced "skank".
"Schenk", surely.
Hockey star Keith Tkachuk's name has a silent T.
Growing up I knew people of Polish descent who pronounced "cz" as if it were "z", "ch", "sh", "ks", and even "k".
Speaking of being 11, this sentence had to be fun to write: "Senator Bond would not discuss specific details about the terminated C.I.A. program."
From this article on the double-secret Cheney program.
"Schenk", surely.
Right. I was trying to indicate how you'd think it'd be pronounced, while protecting her identity from all you creepy people on the internet. To no avail!
I know a few musicians who do this, using an Americanized pronunciation of their name when around Americans. I tried insisting to a friend of mine that, no, the German pronunciation of your name is not difficult for Americans to say or learn at all, but he liked to assimilate in whatever way made people feel comfortable, and introduced himself with the "American" pronunciation, baffling though this was to anyone with even basic German pronunciation skills.
My guess is that the "a" originally had a little thingy on the bottom of it (I don't know what it's technically called), and that makes the a sound like a very French "oh".
Neb! Play one of my songs!
I mean, you don't have to. But I'd get a big kick out of it if you did.
13: Neb played one of my band's songs once, so there's definitely precedent here.
A future show will probably include one of wrongshore's band's songs.
Each of Wrongshore and Stanley has given me free CDs. What have you done for me, heebie?
She could give you Hawaiian Punch.
"How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?"
17: Shheeeesss hapilleeee marrieed with chihilhildren.
And gave you a post title trope.
18: I think she should instead give him a Hertz Donut.
Isn't the usual American response ...?
The proper response is to re-spell the easiest way possible. I want to see "Weeger" instead of that "Uighur" nonsense.
Each of Wrongshore and Stanley has given me free CDs. What have you done for me, heebie?
I'll give you a free link to my songs! Links are the new CDs
You see, heebie, you were supposed to ask neb if he wanted 2 CDs, and then he'd say "2 CDs?", and then you'd say "2 CDs nuts!", and, oh, how we all would have laughed.
Hey, Stanley, there's a phone call for you from Deez.
Hey Stanley, if I had some nuts on the wall, would you call those walnuts?
Deez isn't a real person! BOO-YA! Snap.
This movie intrigues me, JP.
Me too. I'm also intrigued to learn that Moondog and Julie Andrews collaborated on a children's album, which precious gem of knowledge I discovered a couple of clicks away from the link in 19.
27: Me three, but I just found it now serendipitously and am bummed it is not available via Netflix yet (ah but damn good local video rental joint, The Dreaming Ant has it). And some dude named Robust McManlyPants looks to be able to give us a report.
37: Same here, but thought he might turn up and tell us more ...
Yay! I fucking love The American Astronaut. In fact, I was supposed to screen it for a couple of dudes tonight but we rescheduled for Thursday.
I once took a female friend to a public screening of The American Astronaut (I had seen it before and knew its excellence), and she walked out within a few minutes to make a phone call for an hour, came back for five minutes, and then left to make another phone call. Apparently some people find it intolerable, but I find it wildly entertaining. For real! Not just "oh it's weird and i think i'm cool" but like for real entertaining.
I once followed Rocco Sisto, one of its stars, down a few blocks, trying to work up the nerve to tell him it's my birthday today ("Aren't you gonna sing happy birthday to me?") but decided, just in time, that it was too dorky to do.
24: Dude, that is one fucked-up clip.
The next thing that happens is the dance contest, and I find the song weirdly excellent.
I watched another clip from that movie (the "Hey Boy" song in the bathroom), and it's clearly the greatest movie ever made. What kind of monsters are you people, that you've been denying me the knowledge of this movie for so long?
I know I've mentioned it before.
The "party" song is on Youtube too. Professor Hess has just murdered everyone on Jupiter and responds in song.
(Oh, that clip is teh suxx0rs, filmed from a live filming where people are singing along, etc.)
47: Huh. Maybe I wrote about it on my blog.
I can't believe I've never heard of this movie before. I've seen most of Guy Maddin's stuff, and "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes". Fascinating.
I love Guy Maddin. I want to see Brand on the Brain but not My Winnipeg, is that just? The title "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes" intrigues me.
I like this sequence a lot, mostly just music and images.
See, AWB? By not mentioning every single thing here in the comments, not only have you ruined my life, but you've ruined Ned's life.
I am watching it right now.
I apologize for ruining your life. It can be bought, I think. I bought it! Think of how your friends will envy/hate you!
My life can be bought? That explains so much.
Yes, yes, an impressive lists of artists, but what kind of rock do they play? AOR, Hard Rock, Soft Rock, what?
56: The kind of rock they play is usually referred to as Deez.
pronounced 'tkach', one syllable, if you're polish with the ch a bit harder than the english one. It means 'weaver'. FYI: sz is sh, and rz is j with no hint of a d, unless it is preceded by an unvoiced consonant in which case it is a sh. A z with a dot will give you the rz sound as well, so Mike Kshijevskee
pronounced 'tkach'
Ok but what about the "tk"?
as is. make the t sound immediately followed by the k, no hint of a vowel sound in between. Your tongue hits the front of your mouth, then the back.
I'm not sure I can do that with literally no hint of a vowel in between!
61: You have to have a vowel movement to expunge the tricky wannabe vowel.
Y'all are missing out on some awesome prepared piano right now. Also it's incredibly fucking hot in this studio.
I'm listening, but I don't know what I'm listening to.
Awesomest prepared piano I've heard in some time. Who is it?
I wonder if the Tkacz Trio is related to the Takács Quartet.
64: Also it's incredibly fucking hot in this studio.
Aren't all studios either incredibly hot or icy cold?
This apocalyptic string thing is kinda cool, I think.
max
['Nice ambient drums.']
Admit that was a great transition.
Were you born in a barn? Howabout 'please?'
Whatever this is now would be much much cooler if that guy would stop singing.
max
['The drum section was cool.']
Is there a list of what you're playing somewhere on the web?
You know, a cut from that Moondog/Julie Andrews disc wouldn't be entirely out of place in this program.
Some misleading prosody there. You almost had me convinced that you knew I had an increased risk of colon cancer.
The scope of your knowledge intimidates me.
81: It's ok. You can be sedated while neb's scope of knowledge is probing you. But remember, clear fluids only for a few days first.
When neb graduates, he should hang out his shingle and start a combined philosophy and colonoscopy practice. Philosophy may be cyclical, but people will always need colonoscopies!
Philosophy is countercyclical. When things are going well no one stops to wonder whether the life of contemplation might not be the best. Philosophy's consolations really start to look attractive when you've lost your job or are stuck in a Roman prison or like that.
Philosophy's consolations really start to look attractive when you've lost your job or are stuck in a Roman prison or like that. just had a painful colonoscopy.
See, Otto's got you covered.
The last hour has been really nice, neb. (I missed the first hour.)
"The national park foundation is looking for volunteers of easy virtue."
"On Reading Emerson": surely it isn't about my internet friend -- your internet friend -- John Emerson?
I used to know the sister of one of the composer-types in this group.
And you made her alarm sound, is that it? Is that the joke here?
You can say goat fucker on air, neb.
It's actually "goatwhore" and maybe you can say it on air, but I wasn't going to try it.
"Goatse" would definitely make it past the FCC.
Y Kant Tori tell time ?
Listening to the cover ode to no more snow of things on 56k via iPhone.
I think the show needs a unifying theme. Maybe a theme of diffusion !
It occurred to me far too late that I could just play only French bands today. Had I only thought of that several days ago!
92: To be painfully literal, there were at least two times when plans for hiking trips were spoiled because her alarm didn't go off. Aside from that, I prefer not to remember my woefully mismanaged social life at the time.
You can say whore on air, neb. I'm sure of it.
Maybe in your community you can, Paren.
Since when is whore a bad word?
Actually, this brings up something that bugs me. Because I am a bad, time-wasting, unthoughtful person, I play WordTwist on Facebook too much for my own good. They allow slut, but not whore. I find slut to be far more offensive.
Um, just to clarify, I mean I find slut the word more offensive. I've never really heard whore being used much as an epithet; I think of it is a slightly more neutral descriptor than slut.
You can use quotation marks to distinguish between talking about words and what the words denote. E.g.:
I find "slut" more offensive than "whore".
Thank you, all mighty grammar god. Never had I heard of that particular use of quotation mark.
It did engender an interesting debate in my head....would I rather be called a slut or a whore?
I remain undecided.
"Whore" would be worse than "slut", except "whore" sounds more antiquated, since we have more modern terms such as "hooker" or "Republican congressperson".
Not as antiquated as "slattern" or "slanket" sound.
Becks reminded me that I wanted to can cherries in wine this summer, and this being the tail end of cherry season, I have undertaken the duty. However, I always forget just how terribly tedious pitting five pounds of cherries is.
That is, Becks post on cherry cobbler. She didn't personally remind me.
Recording of the show, in one big (248MB) file.
Somehow I just found this....
So, yes, 'tax' is the americanized version of my last name. It does indeed mean 'weaver' in Polish, though I have heard 'tailor' as well. I have no idea how the pronunciation got as butchered as it did, but after so many years of living with it, you just...live with it. For the record, my entire lineage is Polish, though we've had some difficulty tracking down who came over when. And since there's no one still alive to tell us the real story, we may never know. Anyway, many thanks for the airplay as well as the spirited discussion.
Best,
Kevin