Okay.
I’m looking around my room for gems of pop culture (or, as is more often in my case, unpopular culture) that I can gab about.
A good starting point is whatever’s playing on my iPod. Right now, that’s “La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ”, a piece by the composer, Olivier Messiaen.
(*Chuckle*)
Um… That’s Olivier Messiaen.
Hee! You did it again! The way you’re pronouncing it in your brain is – you must forgive me – hilarious. It’s that cluster-f**k of vowels at the end.
Now, before you get all huffy and pronounce a few crueler things in your brain at me, you should know that I too once pronounced Olivier Messiaen the same way you… titter!… you just did.
But now I know better, and I’m going to pass this knowledge on to you. For free!
The first name is easy. It’s the Freedom version… I mean, the French version, of the name Oliver. Oh-LIVE-ee-ay. Like that one actor who won a lot of awards and inspired everyone with his performances and drank to numb the pain of his crushing depression and repressed homosexual desires.
No, silly – not Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise doesn’t inspire anyone. Pay attention!
Beloved actor and all-around doomed soul, Lawrence Olivier
The surname is the challenge, and requires making a couple sounds that don’t appear in the English language. I’ll break it down, syllable by syllable:
Messiaen: Mee-seh-YA-choo.
I know, I know. It doesn’t look like it’s pronounced that way, but it is French after all. We’re talking about a people who can’t be bothered to pronounce half their words most of the time.
I’m looking around my room for gems of pop culture (or, as is more often in my case, unpopular culture) that I can gab about.
A good starting point is whatever’s playing on my iPod. Right now, that’s “La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ”, a piece by the composer, Olivier Messiaen.
(*Chuckle*)
Um… That’s Olivier Messiaen.
Hee! You did it again! The way you’re pronouncing it in your brain is – you must forgive me – hilarious. It’s that cluster-f**k of vowels at the end.
Now, before you get all huffy and pronounce a few crueler things in your brain at me, you should know that I too once pronounced Olivier Messiaen the same way you… titter!… you just did.
But now I know better, and I’m going to pass this knowledge on to you. For free!
The first name is easy. It’s the Freedom version… I mean, the French version, of the name Oliver. Oh-LIVE-ee-ay. Like that one actor who won a lot of awards and inspired everyone with his performances and drank to numb the pain of his crushing depression and repressed homosexual desires.
No, silly – not Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise doesn’t inspire anyone. Pay attention!
Beloved actor and all-around doomed soul, Lawrence Olivier
The surname is the challenge, and requires making a couple sounds that don’t appear in the English language. I’ll break it down, syllable by syllable:
Messiaen: Mee-seh-YA-choo.
I know, I know. It doesn’t look like it’s pronounced that way, but it is French after all. We’re talking about a people who can’t be bothered to pronounce half their words most of the time.
