Ask A Bulgarian

[Double A]

is there any good bulgarian folk metal

 

[TheJ0K3R]

What is your and Bulgarian people's opinion about Turkey?

 

[Takhisis]

@DoubleA: recommendations on Bulgarian metal I can collect from Tolni's messages across this thread and my VM stack:
Епизод (Epizod)
Ахат (Ahat)
Импулс (Impulse)

A good starting point is here, where I found most of those artists' albums (scroll down!).

 

[FriendlyFire]

This explains Bulgarians obsession with fallout games ?
I didnt know that soviets built nuclear power plants in little Bulgaria, maybe should replace with French reactors ? Because you know three eyes and mutations

 

[NikeBG]

is there any good bulgarian folk metal

Probably the most successful Bulgarian folk metal band (which doesn't really say all that much, considering folk metal here isn't a big enough thing yet; though I personally do like them) that I can think of is Balkandji. They're relatively light though (and definitely don't expect anything of the sort of Pagan metal, I don't think we have that kind of stuff here).

Another new group that goes into harder folk metal territory is Khanъ:

That's more or less it (AFAIK). Otherwise, Smallman is basically... sludge metal with folk elements? And, I guess, some of the tracks by the "nationalist metal" band Epizod (if I can call it so), from their best album (where almost all song lyrics were actually texts by classical Bulgarian poets), which combine actual folk songs with their metal. And speaking of classics, there's one song by an old school (80s-90s) rock band, whose bagpipes at the end give it a special charm.

 

[Perfection]

Do you eat bulgur?

 

[Takhisis]

NikeBG, what other gaidarite do you recommend beyond Dafo Trendafilov?
Tolni seems to be averse to such music, for inexplicable reasons.

 

[NikeBG]

Well, other famous/classic performers are Kostadin Varimezov, Dimitar Chupetlovski, Nikola Atanasov etc. From the non-traditional ones though, I personally prefer Vesko Mitev from the ethno bands Isihia and Kayno Yesno Slonce, who plays both kaval and gaida and is also the main vocalist (though, ironically, in my favourite live performance they had a guest on the bagpipe).

P.S. To be fair, as a kid I absolutely hated folk music, especially the Rhodopean one with the bagpipes and high vocals. So I can easily understand Tolni - it's an acquired taste.

 

[Takhisis]

Acqui- OK, I'll just enqueue that stuff and listen to it until I've purged your anti-bagpipe statements from my tortured conscience.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Not sure if Bulgaria or if stolen from Greeks. (fried bread, salad with cheese, rice wrapped in leaves)
I guess it would be a fusion of Greek and Turkish foods

 

[Ferocitus]

1. A few years ago, my old homeland, Lithuania, voted itself as "Most corrupt country in Europe".
This outraged Moldovans who said that title rightfully belonged to them.
How would Bulgaria rate against that top-class competition?

2. When I was studying at the Australian National University about 35 years ago, I noticed that
there were a large number of very good Bulgarian scientists in the Nonlinear Physics Centre.
That number is still very high relative to other nationalities.
http://wwwrsphysse.anu.edu.au/nonlinear/people/

Is there a reason why Bulgarians are attracted to that particular field, and to Canberra?

Happy New Year, whenever you celebrate it!

 

[NikeBG]

The most corrupt country in Europe (the continent), according to Transparency International, is Ukraine (followed by Russia, Belarus and Moldova). But inside the European Union, Bulgaria is certainly the most corrupt (followed by Italy, Romania and Greece) and Lithuania certainly has nothing on us in this regard. Though in terms of negative rankings, Lithuania is, IIRC, a "leader" in suicides, while Bulgaria - in unhappiness.
Btw, I don't really see that many Bulgarian names in that list - maybe 2-3 tops. The Russians are far more numerous (then again, so is their population in general). Otherwise, on news we often hear of the successes of our students in various international "olympiads" (mostly math and physics), despite the lack of support from state and institutions, but how does that compare in professional realization (almost always abroad, since science workers in Bulgaria often get equal or even lower salaries than the janitors in some places) - I don't know. Though I'd say the biggest attraction is towards the IT sector, since it offers probably the best paid jobs, by far, in the entire country and the only way to stay here and live actually well (barring high-level banking and administrative jobs, of course).

 

[Kyriakos]

The most corrupt country in Europe (the continent), according to Transparency International, is Ukraine (followed by Russia, Belarus and Moldova). But inside the European Union, Bulgaria is certainly the most corrupt (followed by Italy, Romania and Greece) and Lithuania certainly has nothing on us in this regard. Though in terms of negative rankings, Lithuania is, IIRC, a "leader" in suicides, while Bulgaria - in unhappiness.
Btw, I don't really see that many Bulgarian names in that list - maybe 2-3 tops. The Russians are far more numerous (then again, so is their population in general). Otherwise, on news we often hear of the successes of our students in various international "olympiads" (mostly math and physics), despite the lack of support from state and institutions, but how does that compare in professional realization (almost always abroad, since science workers in Bulgaria often get equal or even lower salaries than the janitors in some places) - I don't know. Though I'd say the biggest attraction is towards the IT sector, since it offers probably the best paid jobs, by far, in the entire country and the only way to stay here and live actually well (barring high-level banking and administrative jobs, of course).

But it seems people react very negatively if they are found in Bulgaria...:

Sofia looks nice from pics i saw, and recently some relatives went there for a couple of days and liked it a lot

 

[Ferocitus]

The most corrupt country in Europe (the continent), according to Transparency International, is Ukraine (followed by Russia, Belarus and Moldova). But inside the European Union, Bulgaria is certainly the most corrupt (followed by Italy, Romania and Greece) and Lithuania certainly has nothing on us in this regard. Though in terms of negative rankings, Lithuania is, IIRC, a "leader" in suicides, while Bulgaria - in unhappiness.
Btw, I don't really see that many Bulgarian names in that list - maybe 2-3 tops. The Russians are far more numerous (then again, so is their population in general). Otherwise, on news we often hear of the successes of our students in various international "olympiads" (mostly math and physics), despite the lack of support from state and institutions, but how does that compare in professional realization (almost always abroad, since science workers in Bulgaria often get equal or even lower salaries than the janitors in some places) - I don't know. Though I'd say the biggest attraction is towards the IT sector, since it offers probably the best paid jobs, by far, in the entire country and the only way to stay here and live actually well (barring high-level banking and administrative jobs, of course).

Thanks for the reply.

1. "Who is most corrupt?" is an argument best settled with broken bottles in a carpark after the pubs close.

2. A few years ago, there were up to 10 or so who had degrees (mostly PhDs) from Bulgarian universities.
That's quite a large (and very admirable) number from one small country in one field
of scientific endeavour in Australia!

All the best,
Leo.

 

[NikeBG]

Hey, Kyriakos, nice to find you here! Sofia looks good on photos, yes, but mostly on selected ones, almost always from the city centre. Once you go to the residential complexes with the commie-time blocks though - meh.

@Ferocitus Well, maybe Bulgarians do have a higher interest in physics in general (I've heard there's a good number of them in CERN), but I'm a historian and as the saying goes: "Historians don't make good mathematicians and mathematicians don't make good historians", so I haven't really noticed it myself.

 

[Takhisis]

Since we're discussing the backwardness and corruption instead of the noble art of the kaba gaida (btw, do Bulgarians value the gusle as the Serbs, Croats and Fyromians do?), how close is Malcolm Bradbury's Slaka to Bulgaria/Romania?

 

[Ferocitus]

@Ferocitus Well, maybe Bulgarians do have a higher interest in physics in general (I've heard there's a good number of them in CERN), but I'm a historian and as the saying goes: "Historians don't make good mathematicians and mathematicians don't make good historians", so I haven't really noticed it myself.

A case in point is (mathematician) E. T. Bell's "Men of Mathematics". Fascinating,
very influential, but full of unsubstantiated anecdotes and over-romanticised
biographies.

Here's a contentious question for a historian: Would you (or other Bulgarians)
regard Lithuanians as Slavs?

 

[NikeBG]

Since we're discussing the backwardness and corruption instead of the noble art of the kaba gaida (btw, do Bulgarians value the gusle as the Serbs, Croats and Fyromians do?), how close is Malcolm Bradbury's Slaka to Bulgaria/Romania?

On the point of the gusli, that art seems to have been largely forgotten here. We have other rebec-like folk instruments still played (gadulka and tambura), but even they are not the main ones. I've actually been doing a "research" of a sort the last year, trying to gather a semi-authentic soundtrack for the South Slavic group in one M2TW mod, and the only guslars I could find were indeed almost entirely from former Yugoslavia. A shame, really, that we've forgotten them here.
As for Slaka - I don't know, that's the first time I've heard of it. Perhaps Tolni's read the books? I already feel like I'm intruding in his thread anyway...

A case in point is (mathematician) E. T. Bell's "Men of Mathematics". Fascinating,
very influential, but full of unsubstantiated anecdotes and over-romanticised
biographies.

I always tend to think of Fomenko's New chronology for the cases where good mathematicians try to seriously mess with history. Then again, that's a pretty extreme case.

Here's a contentious question for a historian: Would you (or other Bulgarians)
regard Lithuanians as Slavs?

I wouldn't, but then again, I've grown pretty attached to the country and people (for personal reasons). I do consider the Balts as close cousins to the Slavs though (Balto-Slavic linguistic branch and all that), but I can also certainly understand why many of them could be wary of any Slavic connections (the same way we in Bulgaria are wary of Turkic ones).

 

[Kyriakos]

Only mathematician who also was a historian i know was Mnaseas of Patrae, iirc in the third - ?- century BC.
Funnily enough, i know him from his notes on the Getae (who lived in the current border of Bulgaria with Romania) as worshiping Saturn by the name of Zamolxis (Zamolxis was first mentioned by Herodotos i suppose, maybe as a former slave and then student of Pythagoras).

 

[Takhisis]

On the point of the gusli, that art seems to have been largely forgotten here. We have other rebec-like folk instruments still played (gadulka and tambura), but even they are not the main ones. I've actually been doing a "research" of a sort the last year, trying to gather a semi-authentic soundtrack for the South Slavic group in one M2TW mod, and the only guslars I could find were indeed almost entirely from former Yugoslavia. A shame, really, that we've forgotten them here.

A real shame. I am told that the gusle is an acquired taste in the urban areas of ex-YU. People have weird tastes in this day and age.

Any recommendations on the gadulka and tambura?

You're doing Total War mods? Interesting.

As for Slaka - I don't know, that's the first time I've heard of it. Perhaps Tolni's read the books? I already feel like I'm intruding in his thread anyway...

Nah, he'll give you the thread in exchange for a hot-water bottle, a wireless modem, two well-cooked sausages and 50 levas.