The Vineyards

At some point many years ago I noticed jazz was quite a complex musical genre, with constructions often improvised that sounded strange, absurd, even wrong to those who did not know what all that was about. Some time later I realized I was actually thinking about blues, but it still applies.

That belief led me to formulate the idea that jazz was the "last phase" of music, that normal musicians would become jazz musicians when they reached the apex of musical proficiency and became too good for other genres.

As I took my first music lessons, I wondered if someday I would be good enough to play jazz. I imagined I would not be allowed to if I were not, and the teacher would scold me if I tried. Sometimes I would close the door, lower the volume, set the auto-chord to some pre-programmed jazz rhythm, and try to play something with that.

One day I heard New Orleans was the capital of jazz, and it stuck. And I heard a song from which the only verse I remember is "down in New Orleans", and it talked about something nice - and it also stuck. So New Orleans is a nice city filled with jazz players, who are all the ultimate level a musician can reach. Visiting New Orleans became something to do when I could understand jazz better.

Gabriel Knight then appeared. A great game, which I regretfully was never able to finish due to faulty copies. Most of it happens in New Orleans, and he visits places I believe are real. The local fauna is explored a bit, most likely in a very stereotypical manner, but I grew quite fond of it none the less. Mardi Gras, above-ground cemetery, voodoo, many genres of music (not only jazz, who would have known). All that in the beautiful ambiance created by the game. I began to like New Orleans for the city itself, not for any relation I had created from my idea of jazz.

(Near my house there are many streets with names based on locations in the United States. If I come from one direction, there are three streets I can turn at to get home: California, Hollywood and New Orleans. California is too wide, so it is almost an avenue, too many cars; Hollywood is too near a commerce intense street, so it has cars parked everywhere and it is troublesome to go through, especially when someone comes from the other way; New Orleans is great. Just to add to my taste.)

The Knight family in this game was from Germany. Gabriel's grandfather leaves some poems in German explaining his background; at some point, Gabriel learns of his family's past and goes to Germany. At the time I thought that was just quite strange, as I read all those words with a mix of Italian, French, English and Portuguese pronunciation. I doubt I had ever heard any German at all.

Although, I now realize, I had seen some German before. In Star Trek: Judgement Rites there is a mission featuring Trelane. Anyone who has seen the original series remembers him - for those who have not, he is a godlike entity, very similar to Q from the other series, who was fascinated by the Napoleonic era at that episode, and tried to recreate it and play games in his recreation with the crew of the Enterprise; in the game, he is fascinated with World War I, and creates a similar scenario. Kirk and company are taken to what looks like a German city. There are German words thrown here and there, and everyone treats each other by "Herr" and "Frau". It just sounded strange back then, and extremely frustrating - I spent a good three weeks at that mission.

I am not sure when I first heard German, instead of only reading it. It most likely was when cable TV first appeared in the country and brougth along the Deutsche Welle channel. Awful! Before that I had only seen satires of the accent, never the actual language. It sounded terrible, as it actually hurts me - the analogy I always use is that it feels like running through a dense forest filled with thorns and tripping at the irregular terrain and the tree roots all the time and falling and getting hurt even more. Yes, it feels like that for me. Honestly. Go do some googling (*ahem*, researching) for synesthesia if you like.

Many seasons came, many seasons went ("Painters", by Jewel Kilcher), along came ruby, who had been cursed with being put at a German school since earliest childhood and only leaving when it was over, and whenever she would mention the language or say one word or mock me when I tried to say one I would get angry, both at her and at myself, for hating German so much because of all the thorns. Blasted thorns. But still, why do they speak such a thorny language?

Another few seasons came and went (if you count in São Paulo, though, you have an average of three seasons per day) and Ode to Joy came along this time. I was terrified: I would be in the middle of a hundred people singing in German, and I would have to sing in it, too! With right pronunciation! I had surges of despair and attempted suicide twice, and very often I was found on the sidewalks of bars in the morning, tears in my eyes, a bottle of French wine in my hand, singing in full voice "Let's all sing a song of joy for love and understanding", the awful American version of Ode to Joy, in an attempt at reaching the ears of some deity who would turn the original song into that.

Most of that is not true, but when we were given the lyrics and told how to pronounce each word I did feel some tears coming down. Luckily that day we did not sing, so I had time to deal with that (and be prevented from quitting).

It was a surprise when we went to sing it the next week when the teacher told us not to sing with the German "r", because it would probably kill us and no one would hear it. "Use the Italian 'r' instead. Even German choirs do that." And the world was a beautiful place again when I noticed what that meant. There were still many words I had plenty of trouble pronouncing, but I knew it would not hurt me anymore, in any sense (whichever sense "sense" has).

Frustrating, then, it became: although it did not hurt anymore, I still had trouble singing or even saying many words, and it bugged me a lot to sing and not have the slightest idea what I was saying. And I was tired of being angry at ruby and myself as mentioned before, and that was happening a lot more frequently at this point.

One night, then, I walked the eighty meters to the language school where I once tried to teach English but was prevented from by stupid circumstances, and asked their prices for extra intensive courses. I had less than two months until the presentation, to learn how to say those words and what they meant, and I wanted to surprise ruby before that, too.

Unfortunately, it took about three weeks until it started. Much to my delight, the teacher is a Japanese girl (mid twenties, descendent, alright). "Only Japanese girls should be allowed to speak German", I said about Asuka (Evangelion) many posts ago, because she sounds very cute when she does. A shame, then, that I know more Japanese than my teacher, even if it sounds a bit cute when she says it - and it surely is a lot better than a late thirties bearded native German man, by the gods.

I am still not at all good, even though I am taking six months worth of classes in two, and it was not even halfway done when the presentation came, but I had learned enough of the structures to have some idea, aided by the translation, of what I was talking about. I got a lot more help from ruby with the pronunciation, though.

Still, with all this, assuming I can find the absurd amount of money this kind of class requires, I may consider taking the rest of the modules once I am done with the basic one. As long as I keep away from Deutsche Welle and any natives I should not have a problem with German. Simple.

(With this post I tried to tackle the New Orleans promise and explain the German issue. Two in one hit is great, no? So I will make it even better and add a third one: I am not sure if the last post was the first time I used the word "sucked"; here, perhaps. I used it because I wanted to signify, in one word, that the year was not good at some points. Saying "2004 was great and was not good" sounded awful, so "was great and sucked" was my choice. I doubt there is any other word I could have used. Alright, three. And I will let it be known that I started writing this post 27 hours ago - but total writing time is only about two hours.)

Gabriel Knight is a great game of which I need to find a working copy someday, and hopefully play the two sequels. Interesting to notice it had a much bigger effect in my life than I originally thought, probably being at par with Loom and King's Quest VII. I assume I never realized it because I only played it years later.