Sunday's Sofa-Surfin' Sidenote - Gloomy, Indeed

Continuing my exploration of Sunday (see March 14th), I popped in early this morning to see what my Facebook friends were up to. Overall, and it could just be part of that ego-talking thing whereby they want you to think their lives are grand, everyone is pleased as punch that it's Sunday. Hmmmm....

Outside of getting to sleep until nine, I don't have the same feeling. For me, Sunday means almost-Monday, lots to do, and that guilty I-should-be-doing-something feeling if I'm not. Seriously. Gloomy is the word. I should add here, that I don't dislike Sunday when I wake up. Quite the opposite. A whole day of rest, stretched out in front of me, just waiting to be filled with.... It's more like 2:00pm, when I realize the day is flying by, that I start to dislike the what's-coming-next.

And now, I shall digress. I recently watched an incredible movie, appropriately called Gloomy Sunday. The movie is a tragic love story, set in Budapest during WWII, during the rise in power of the Third Reich. Though it takes place in Budapest, the movie is in German, with subtitles. The song Gloomy Sunday has an amazing story of it's own. Will get to that in a minute, but here's a clip from the movie. The movie is well worth watching, and I'm not a big fan of the sad, the sappy, or the tragic. Quite content here in the bubble I live in. Don't even attempt to get me to watch something like Schindler's List - not gonna happen.

Note: spoiler at the end - if you're going to watch the movie someday, stop at the 2:oo mark :)


Here is the original version of "Szomorú Vasárnap" (Gloomy Sunday), composed by Rezső Seress in 1933.

More incredible than the movie, is the fact that this song has been recorded by more than eighty artists between 1935 and 2009, including Billie Holiday, Sarah McLachlan, and Bjork. Bonkers. Goes without saying that I'm easily fascinated, but this song fascinates me. Might even go as far as to say, imádom...gyönyörű (I love it, it's gorgeous). I am utterly perplexed as to how I could have lived in Budapest for over eleven years without ever hearing about the song, or for that matter the movie when it was released in 2006. How is that possible?

There's a bit of folklore to go with the song. According to legend, and I haven't really been able to establish this as true or false (my guess is that it's a bit of both), there are more than a hundred suicide cases in Hungary linked to this song, being played whilst a life is ended, on a Sunday. Never substantiated, but makes for great story-telling. In Hungary, it's actually called 'the suicide song'.

Here's a funny clip - Note: if you are suicidal, don't watch :)



Do you suppose that's enough pondering of the depressing and dreary for one day? Geez, Kerry...way to help everyone enjoy their weekend. Sorry, I just think it's interesting, and somewhat poignant since we're talking about the pros and cons of Sunday.

On that note, back to reality. Need to get my Sunday moving, and should probably at least feed my children breakfast. It's gray and poopy in Tampa today, thundering, about to rain cats and dogs. I may just forego the housecleaning for yet another day and watch Gloomy Sunday again :) In my quest to further examine this topic, would very much appreciate your comments. Sunday - Do you love it or hate it? What makes it better or worse?