Holding Out
Was having a conversation with a friend the other day about street food (specifically kebab/donair/shwarma), which eventually lead to discussing how to pronounce “gyro” – is it hero or jai-row?
Of course it’s hero, but most North Americans start out calling it a jai-row until corrected.
By that time of course the word gyro is stuck in my head, and I’m doing this thing where I roll a word around in my mouth until it sounds ridiculous (gyro…. gyroooooo…. gyyyyyyrooooowwwwww…. gyRO!). And the inevitable happens. I start singing the song Holding Out for a Hero in my head.
Except, it’s “Holding Out for a Gyro” – and now it’s Weird Al (because OF COURSE it is), and while I’m not actually composing alternate lyrics to the song, I am directing the music video on my head:
Drunken Weird Al is careening about a busy New York City street on a drunken Saturday night, upsetting food carts of all sorts, looking for the perfect thing to soak up alcohol – nothing else will do, he’s Holding out For a Gyro.
Does anyone else do this?
And by “this” I mean direct music videos in your head, although I’d also be interested if you have drunken Gyro-hunting stories…
January 29th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Occasionally I think graphically, but I most definitely do this with lyrics. I compose alternate lyrics to things (on the fly, never written down) pretty consistently, and quite often sing them if I’m just hanging around at home and/or have a guitar in my hands.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Um, are you sure you haven’t been eating something stronger than gyros?
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January 29th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Yes, all the time. They’re usually full of choreography. I have a fear that some day I’ll be walking down the street with my iPod on and all of a sudden I’ll be that crazy woman who’s dancing. To quell this fear, I like to think they’re for a music video and not some mentally unstable outburst.
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January 29th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
That’s interesting, I’ve always pronounced it year-o.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Haha! I do not do this but it made me smile
I always thought it was pronounced gee-roh. Who knows.
January 30th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
You are all kinds of awesome! I can just picture Weird Al frantically searching for the perfect gyro. (I have never known how to pronounce it, so I avoid it and say kebab or shawarma.)
Yeah, I conduct imaginary music videos and movies in my head. I also walk around with a pretty awesome soundtrack to my life playing in the background.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:16 pm
@col: I think year-o is probably a better representation – the “h” in “hero” is a bit too strong. thankfully it still works for the song
February 4th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
You’ve just inspired me to go re-watch Footloose so thank you. And yes, I do on occasion conduct imaginary music video shoots in my head and am always the star despite having the worst singing voice known to man!