Everybody hustle.

January 17, 2005 11:13 PM

Learn Disco! They say it drives the chicks wild... maybe you'll finally get a date!
(The end of the video is the grooviest part. Courtesy NewToday.)
posted by miss lynnster (40 comments total)

ETA... correction: NewsToday
posted by miss lynnster at 11:29 PM on January 17, 2005

This is one of the most fantastic things I have ever seen. Oh, and how did you know I couldn't get a date?
posted by greasepig at 11:34 PM on January 17, 2005

Spike Jonez is so going to make a video in this style.
posted by drezdn at 11:47 PM on January 17, 2005

Does this mean people are going to stop making fun of miss lynnster now? I sure hope so.

Thanks ;)
posted by The God Complex at 12:02 AM on January 18, 2005

I'd love to know the context, especially the year. The language is Spanish, no?

Oh, miss lynster, when your link goes directly to a video file, it's nice to warn folks with a little [qt] or [wmv] or whatever.
posted by mediareport at 12:13 AM on January 18, 2005

I am not going to make fun of anyone, because this was kind of funny. But maybe I like disco too much. I didn't really get it.
posted by mai at 12:19 AM on January 18, 2005

Why must this great blue website bring so much pain and suffering into my tiny tiny human heart. First the philosopher dolls, now this? Why must my dreams be brought forth from their somber forgotten depths only to be squashed once after they take their frightful first step into the light that they once so humbly knew before they faded into the faint with childhood memories alike. Why must my dreams be shattered so?

I have failed to learn disco from this.

I am going back into my bed to cry.
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:26 AM on January 18, 2005

Spanish?! Oh my no, I think it's Finnish.
posted by nicwolff at 12:35 AM on January 18, 2005

I am dancing with the video right now. It's great. I'm really picking up some good moves. Try it! EVERYBODY DISCO!
posted by wsg at 12:40 AM on January 18, 2005

A disco free for all! Brilliant! Looks like I'm taking my wife out disco dancing this weekend!
posted by sic at 12:49 AM on January 18, 2005

oh, and not Spanish, por Dios, (eyes roll nearly out of head)
posted by sic at 12:49 AM on January 18, 2005

I don't think it's Finnish... I have no idea just listening to it, but if you click on the other videos, most of them are in Dutch.
posted by borkingchikapa at 12:51 AM on January 18, 2005

wsg & sic: you rub it in and in doing so further crush my little heart under the weight of harsh reality, my heart withers away into the greys of life like a depleted cigarette atop faceless concrete under the mighty hoof of a very large person. So ... so sad. So sad.
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:54 AM on January 18, 2005

Awesome. I wish I could download this so I could practise later.

Not that I need it ;)
posted by bdave at 12:55 AM on January 18, 2005

In a bizarre case of cultural drift and subsequent convergence, literally translated, 'Disco' in Finnish means 'totally groovy dance party instruction in the lawn bowling club's rumpus room.' In Finland they have over 4000 different words for 'indoor dance party', because it's so cold, and because they are so awesome. It has little direct relation to the North American origins of the term, even as the two activities remain, on initial analysis, to be most excellently similar.
posted by jimmythefish at 12:56 AM on January 18, 2005

Yes, it's Finnish. The dance instructor, Åke Blomqvist, is/was quite famous in Finland and made several such videos in the seventies, mostly for traditional dance styles like waltz and tango. It's an old internet craphunters' favourite here up north, here's a few mirrors for downloading the clip: 1 2 3.

The introduction speech is also quite hilarious, but difficult to translate. Something along the lines of
The favourite dance styles of the modern youth are 'disko', 'jytä' and 'beat', which are especially difficult for adults because of this move (bends his knees rhythmically). You have to get into the right disco feeling so that it works....
posted by ikalliom at 1:12 AM on January 18, 2005

the language of disco is universal doll

wanna do the horizontal shuffle
i've got my own glitter ball
and do a mean SSATW
so lose the laundry chickadee
and lets boogie
posted by dprs75 at 2:43 AM on January 18, 2005

At one point in the video I could swear I heard the guy saying, "dicks, cocks, dicks, cocks..." But I could be wrong. It was near the beginning when he was demonstrating the super-difficult left/right steps.
posted by emelenjr at 4:49 AM on January 18, 2005

That would be "yks, kaks, yks, kaks", or "one, two, one ,two". By the way, the song is Moskau by Dschinghis Khan (22MB mpeg with slightly more advanced dance moves).
posted by ikalliom at 5:15 AM on January 18, 2005

Awesome. I wish I could download this so I could practise later.

be careful what you wish for.
posted by stokast at 5:34 AM on January 18, 2005

I heart ms. lynnster and ikalliom. And all you disco-boogie crazy mofos.
posted by bardic at 5:56 AM on January 18, 2005

Those last minutes after the "students" came onstage to dance...I swear they somehow mixed in a clip from my relatives 25th anniversary party some years ago. What memories!
posted by metoo at 6:25 AM on January 18, 2005

Love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...But maybe in the next world
posted by orange clock at 7:01 AM on January 18, 2005

I have this theory that during times of poor, incompetant leadership, the culture stagnants. Yet during times of economic properity fostered by good leadership, there is an outflowing of time enduring culture.

Examples:

60s, JFK : Hendrix, Warhol, Cival Rights. A+
70s, Nixon: Disco, Jesus Christ Superstar, Watergate. D-
80s, Reagan, Hair Metal, flourescent bracelets, Iran Contra. D -
90s, Clinton, Indy rock, Pulp fiction, Americorps. A+
00s, Bush, Jessica Simpson, Clear Channel, Iraq. C-
posted by orange clock at 7:41 AM on January 18, 2005

Most curious, I expect there are a chain of disco instruction parlors across Europe featuring this video and hipsters of all ages getting down with their mad groovy selves.

orange clock, so you're saying the GOP is bad for society? Or just pop culture? Or enduring pop culture?
posted by fenriq at 7:45 AM on January 18, 2005

The GOP is bad for me.
posted by orange clock at 7:48 AM on January 18, 2005

orange clock - you gave Hair Metal a D- and the repetitive wails of Nirvana an A+?

I'm taking it you never made love in the backseat of a car with Night Ranger playing... I'd give Hair Metal at least a B.
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 7:56 AM on January 18, 2005

Dschinghis Khan is the bestest name ever for a dance act.

Also, this video changed my life. It was like falling in love all over again, in that short-attention-span, who's-this-in-my-bed kind of way.

Thank you, miss lynnster. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
posted by chicobangs at 8:21 AM on January 18, 2005

scorchio! Boutros Boutros Ghali.
posted by clarkie666 at 9:11 AM on January 18, 2005

Thanks, ikalliom!

Hey, it was late and my speakers were low; I heard a few words that sounded like a strangely-accented Spanish. Lo siento, believe me.
posted by mediareport at 9:31 AM on January 18, 2005

It's like Soul Train, except with old Scandinavian white folks! Boogieboogie! OW! Shake it! Unh!
posted by chicobangs at 10:34 AM on January 18, 2005

Thanks, ikalliom, I've had this video on my harddrive for over a year and never knew anything about it except that it was blend of 70% awesome and 30% groovy.
posted by RylandDotNet at 10:37 AM on January 18, 2005

After watching the video, I feel strangely aroused..... !
posted by Doohickie at 11:45 AM on January 18, 2005

Kudos again to miss lynnster. I'm laughing again with some awkward memories (I am so old!). I thought I heard the word 'Moscow' in the lyric so I guessed it was Russian until reading ikalliom's comments.

Thanks to you both.
posted by X4ster at 11:48 AM on January 18, 2005

I for one welcome our middle aged disco dancing finnish overlords....
posted by daHIFI at 12:13 PM on January 18, 2005

So, 1-15, then?

heh.
posted by chicobangs at 12:42 PM on January 18, 2005

Ahhh, the power of Finnish disco.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:52 PM on January 18, 2005

brilliant. what is that, portuguese? on preview: ah, finnish. i just ascribe "portuguese" to any inscrutable language.
posted by blendor at 2:16 PM on January 18, 2005

What the hell:

Åke bosses us around too much," says 12-year-old.
Leena and Åke Blomqvist homepage.
July 2004 newspaper article on Leena and Åke Blomqvist's tango class, printed during Finland's annual Tango Fair.
Wonderfully bitchy blog entry about attending one of Blomqvist's classes during the 2003 Tango Fair [scroll down to #13]:

The dance lessons were incredibly bad. Ridiculously bad. Åke was an incredible asshole to everybody all the time. Misogynist, cheauvinist, racist, rude, just about anything you can think of. His trophy wife teaching assistant had a forced smile on her while his demeaning jokes kept going on. At some point, Jukka walked out. To make the long story short, we didn't learn to dance. All we learned was to hate Åke.

[blendor, Portuguese was my first guess.]
posted by mediareport at 6:20 PM on January 18, 2005

If I danced like that in my local club, I'd get my ass kicked.

but oh, the fashions . . .
posted by mikeinclifton at 7:00 PM on January 18, 2005