Romanians have this strange clapping habit. Once a performance is over, there will be the usual clapping. Then, after about 10 seconds of standard clapping, somebody will always start a beat. As soon as one or two people get it going, everybody immediately joins in. Suddenly everyone is clapping in unison, faster, faster, faster, and then back to slow. This continues for a few cycles. Some of my sitemates were analyzing this behavior. Certainly it was not something we recognized from back home (though if anyone has experiences to the contrary, please pipe in here.) We decided it was a holdover from the Communist times, joking that back then there was even a proper way to clap. Although we kind of laughed it off, tonight I turn on the TV at about 1 AM and TV1, the state run TV channel, is doing a 50th anniversary special by showing old clips.

So I sit for a while watching the Brasov International Music Festival of 1968. A very classy Communist affair, funky set, long silver microphone with chord, and plenty of shots panning the crowd, most of whom appear dressed in the same suit. Glamorous because not only are the acts introduced in Romanian but also French. So, the young man singing finishes his number and low and behold, the Romanian clapping! The camera pans to the audience, the resplendent people in black and white, row upon row, hands clapping as one. And the reverberating beat from years past reaches my ears.