Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 August 28

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 28

mabuela?

I heard this Spanish song and the radio, and I don’t know what exactly was being said, but there were brief moments when a female (or more?) would say this word, which is probably inaccurate. Does anybody know what I’m talking about? This is really irritating me. --66.190.69.246 (talk) 03:49, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Very likely mi abuela--"my grandmother". μηδείς (talk) 04:08, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

I don’t know if vowels can contract like that in Spanish, and I can’t find a relevant song with that name. I can remember the words “como la luna,” “sus palabras” and “cada día” from the song, but that’s about it. --66.190.69.246 (talk) 04:13, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Normally not, but they sometimes take some liberties to make the words fit a song: Para bailar la Bamba, se necesita una poca de gracia, par' mi, par' ti, y arriba, y arriba... That's how Richie Valens sang it anyway. And a Spanish speaking colleague that I asked about it said that's what was going on there. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→

Nevermind, found it. --66.190.69.246 (talk) 04:37, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Apparently the word's Manuela. μηδείς (talk) 16:46, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Here comes the bride

Is it possible that Wagner's Here Comes the Bride was a deliberate parody of Mendelssohn's Wedding March? I've noticed a certain similarity between the two -- and besides, these two composers hated each other's guts, so I could see how Wagner might have tried totally turning Mendelssohn's wedding march inside out just to insult and ridicule him. Agree/disagree? 24.23.196.85 (talk) 07:28, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

We're not here to either agree or disagree with novel theories of this kind. We're here to provide references, if they exist. I've had a good look around google but found nothing, so it looks like you're on your own here. Fwiw, I've never heard this theory.

Wagner was certainly not above parodying in music those he despised, the most famous case probably being the character Sixtus Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger, who was originally going to be called Hans Lick, a sort of operatic channelling of the Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, whose detestation of Wagner's music was matched only by Wagner's hatred of him. But wiser counsel prevailed. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:29, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Well, thanks for the effort. I guess I should try asking someone who studies music history for a living. BTW, Wagner was not alone in trashing music critics who gave him the thumbs-down -- Puccini, too, based his Baron Scarpia (the villain in his opera Tosca) on the theatrical critic Vito Scaripa who had harshly criticized one of his earlier operas. 24.23.196.85 (talk) 05:26, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Best of luck, but I'd be very surprised if you found anything different about this elsewhere. See, you're not going on anything you've read anywhere, or even what someone's told you. You've just created this Wagner-Mendelssohn theory from scratch and are hoping to find some confirmation of it. There is simply no reason to believe that "it sounds plausible" = "it really did happen". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 06:18, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

TV Show

I am looking for the name of a TV show I watched when I was 7 years old (2001). I barely remember the plot but the opposing character (the bad girl) was a red-hair woman named Ashka or Sashka or something like that. She'd thrown fire-balls with some kind of device sha had in her hands... Oh, the good guy was named Paul. The shows was about portals to other dimensions or something. Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 17:28, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

So many great memories watching this series growing up. It's Spellbinder (TV series). _{Hia10 (talk) 19:34, 28 August 2013 (UTC)}

Yeah, it was a great show. Thank you so much!! Hia10 Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 19:42, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Sounds interesting, I'll have to watch it. It was shot near my Mother's Mothers home town in Poland for the spookiness. μηδείς (talk) 18:49, 29 August 2013 (UTC)