Month: November 2020

Song: “The Lonesome Boatman”

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Alright, let’s continue sharing some interesting musical finds. Many years ago, I realized unexpectedly that I really enjoy Irish and Scottish folk melodies. But even more, I love when modern bands creatively reimagine these melodies in their own style.

I first heard a song by The Dropkick Murphys in a movie, and I instantly became a fan (I plan to write about that song separately, but today is about a different one). I’ve been happily listening to their music for many years now—it’s perfect for long flights, by the way.

Today, I want to talk about the song The Lonesome Boatman, which was the opening track on their 2017 album 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory. It’s permanently earned a spot on my playlist of top songs, though it’s more of a melody than a song.

As with a previous song I shared, it turns out the band didn’t originally write this tune. It’s actually a cover and a tribute to a song created way back in 1969!

It was written and performed by two brothers, Finbar and Eddie Furey. Their group, The Furys, is a well-known Irish folk band, and The Lonesome Boatman is one of their most famous pieces, which they themselves re-recorded several times with updated arrangements. According to Wikipedia, fans of the Glasgow Celtic football club even sing it at matches.

The song is simple yet deeply moving. The original version is more lyrical, but I still prefer The Dropkick Murphys version—it’s more modern, vibrant, and dynamic, yet it preserves the original melody’s beauty.

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Book: Dmitry Glukhovsky “Metro 2035”

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In September, I wrote in this blog about the game Metro: Exodus—the latest part in the trilogy about Artyom. I also briefly covered the original source material, Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro series. The first game followed the plot of the first book quite closely, but after that, the games and books began to diverge, though they clearly influenced each other, especially since Dmitry Glukhovsky was heavily involved in the development of the games.

I really liked the first book in the series back in the day, despite some critiques of its writing style. However, it was easy to forgive the author because the concept was so intriguing. The plot itself wasn’t new: yet another “messiah” traveling from point A to point B to bring happiness to everyone. But the setting of a post-apocalyptic world, where only a few survivors now have to live underground—this was captivating. Glukhovsky added mysticism and science fiction elements, and, unexpectedly, the book became a hit, turning Dmitry Glukhovsky into a mega-star. His books have been translated into numerous languages, Metro inspired a highly successful video game, and his relatively new novel Text was adapted into a film in Russia featuring top Russian actors. But I covered all of this in my last post, so I won’t repeat myself.

After the first book, I quickly read the second, but it featured different characters and lacked both the originality and emotional impact of the first. However, when Glukhovsky released the third book in the series in 2015, I bought it immediately and started reading right away. I managed to get through at most 100 pages before putting it down in frustration and even wrote a brief, emotional post on Facebook. I simply couldn’t keep reading—I disliked the book that much.

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Book: Boris Akunin “Peace and War”

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Boris Akunin’s fictional supplement to his series on the history of the Russian Empire runs in parallel, telling the story of one family. Like the History series itself, the narrative is quite uneven. As a standalone series, I find it relatively weak, if it weren’t meant as a supplement. However, I love both history and Akunin as a storyteller.

The series began with short novellas about specific historical periods, but with the latest volumes, each period is accompanied by a full novel. The previous book, The Fortunate Adventures and Reflections of Lucius Catin, portrayed not so much Russia itself but rather the European trends that influenced Russia in various ways. Though I didn’t rate it highly, it still had some interesting moments.

The new novel, Mir i Voyna (Peace and War), shows us Lucius’s family many years later. Even with its title, the author seems to be saying, “Now I’ll show you Tolstoy, but from a different angle.” I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of Count Tolstoy’s War and Peace, but at least Tolstoy’s novel has grandeur, epic scope. In contrast, Akunin’s story is limited to a few months and a single village with serfs near Moscow.

But here, Akunin at least tried to play with the detective genre, one of his favorites. However, it falls far short of his best Fandorin novels. It even seems that the detective storyline doesn’t really interest the author and was added to the book simply as a framework.

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Song: “Was wallen wir trinken” / “Sieben Tage lang”

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Today, I’ll introduce you to another song, one I enjoy listening to in various versions.

I first came across the song Was wollen wir trinken performed by the band Oktoberklub from the GDR. They recorded it in the year I was born, 1977. When I heard it for the first time, I was struck by its memorable melody and vocal style. At that time, I didn’t understand the German lyrics at all (I often perceive vocals in songs as a separate musical instrument, so the lyrics aren’t as important to me).

Later on, I started hearing the same melody here and there, suddenly realizing that even well-known artists were performing the same song.

I decided to dig deeper. Interestingly, it seems that just about everyone has performed it. Wikipedia alone mentions over thirty “most famous” artists who covered it, not to mention the many lesser-known versions.

While researching, I uncovered many interesting facts, some of which later turned out to be popular myths. The most intriguing one was that this song was supposedly the anthem of the fascist Luftwaffe. A compelling story, but a myth nonetheless.

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Book: Maxim Dorofeev “The Jedi Way”

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Three years ago, also in November, I wrote a review of Maxim Dorofeev’s book Jedi Techniques. In it, Maxim aimed to consolidate the essence of his time-management training. The book was very good, although it didn’t reinvent the wheel. Now, Maxim has released its follow-up, The Jedi Way.

However, calling it a sequel isn’t quite accurate. The new book is more a reflection on his earlier advice and a re-evaluation of his own methods. In this way, I actually liked it even more than the first.

As I mentioned, in the first book, Maxim compiled what he considered the best elements from numerous methods. He amusingly illustrated these concepts through the characters of a rational little person and a monkey, supposedly living in our heads and competing for our attention and time. These characters were borrowed from Tim Urban, and they fit seamlessly into the narrative.

However, these were largely well-known techniques and tips from other methods. Maxim simply brought them together and presented them in an appealing way.

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