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Post by ORJ_Brand on May 17, 2009 21:51:25 GMT 1
I can't imagine Jos and Ciss watching the Eurovision Song Contest (am I wrong?)... but anyway my wife and I usually do. It's usually quite amusing!
My thoughts on the top five:
1. Norway - a catchy tune. My wifed like it best... I can see why it won... although it sounded Irish rather than Norwegian!
2. Iceland - my favourite on the night... but maybe that had something to do with the attractive singer (ahem).
3. Azerbaijan - weird intro. The rest of the song was classic eurovision. (Well "classic" is perhaps the wrong word. What I really mean is "pulp").
4. Turkey - what can I say? They must have escaped from someone's harem... did they sing? I can't quite remember. They did dance about the stage. I definitely recall that!
5. United Kingdom - hurrah! We've not had a top five entry for years! Mind you - considering that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the song AND accompanied on piano AND canvassed many countries to vote for us... maybe its not so surprising that we got a few votes...
At least the voting was a bit fairer than last year - where Russia seemed to win just because there are so many countries on its borders...
What did you guys think?
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Post by Mereel Ma'viin on May 17, 2009 23:14:20 GMT 1
What is this Eurovision, if I may ask without sounding totally deficient in my pop culture knowledge (which I am, but that's beside the point)? I get the impression that it's sort of like 'American Idol', but for all of Europe instead of a single nation. Does that about cover it, or is there more to it than that?
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Post by Jos Nelsh on May 18, 2009 0:26:54 GMT 1
It's a song festival. Some kind of European contest for writing the 'best' song. Every country is represented by a local artist and a song. A jury votes. It's very mainstream/popular but not in terms of things you can see on MTV, for example. It's mostly artists that are succesful in their own countries, and the music often reflects this in some kind of way. It's not very hip. You're correct in assuming this isn't our thing Brand.  |
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Post by ORJ_Brand on May 18, 2009 20:35:47 GMT 1
Here's Norway's winning entry... lol
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Post by Jos Nelsh on May 19, 2009 0:10:45 GMT 1
This is so embarassing.
I mean.
What will the world think of Europeans when they see this?
We're coming off as a bunch of cheese eating gypsies, dancing a merry horlepipe to eccentric folk tones on our wooden shoes.
lol
but seriously
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Post by ORJ_Brand on May 22, 2009 23:05:01 GMT 1
If you thought that was cheesy - you should look at some of the other entries!
lol
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Post by Jos Nelsh on May 27, 2009 16:45:19 GMT 1
I'll pass on that, thanks haha. Wasn't there some bunch of guys dressed up as Vikings winning for some Scandinavian country a few years back?
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Hyde
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Post by Hyde on May 28, 2009 2:34:55 GMT 1
I'll pass on that, thanks haha. Wasn't there some bunch of guys dressed up as Vikings winning for some Scandinavian country a few years back? Wow! I gotta start watching this thing!!  hahaha  |
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Post by Jos Nelsh on May 28, 2009 10:45:21 GMT 1
No, you don't! Haha
And Azerbaijan is in Europe?
Since when? It borders on freaking Iran!
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Post by ORJ_Brand on May 30, 2009 11:59:35 GMT 1
According to Wikipedia - there are 50 countries located in Europe (including Azerbaijan) but only (currently) 27 countries in the European Union.
So Azerbaijan is in Europe geographically but not politically or economically...
The Eurovision song contest can take as large a view of Europe as they like because it is (after all) only a SONG contest...
You could argue that geographically speaking, there is no such thing as Europe. We should talk about Eurasia instead, since Europe and a large part of Asia are located on one tectonic plate...
Brand
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Post by Jos Nelsh on May 31, 2009 1:43:03 GMT 1
Agreed.  'Europe' isn't a very defined thing. Although if you asked me about Azerbaidjan, I'd say: Middle East. But I guess that isn't so much a continent as it is a name for a region. |
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Post by ORJ_Brand on May 31, 2009 18:50:34 GMT 1
(Apologies for steering off topic again!)
I wouldn't be surprised if the term "Middle-East" eventually becomes redundant. Turkey wants to be fully part of Europe... Azerbaijan too, it seems...
Maybe we'll end up talking about "Far Eastern Europe"? Or probably just "Eastern Europe"... The current "Eastern European" countries will become "central European", I guess.
Anyway - I need to think carefully who to vote for in the European elections this week...
I doubt that you'd be aware of the problems we've been having here in Britain with political scandals - lots of British MPs have been criticised for claiming expenses for spurious reasons... Several have resigned their offices.
European parliament is apparently even worse in this regard...
Politicians! Their motto seems to be: "Its not what you know, its what you can get away with..."
Brand
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Hyde
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Post by Hyde on May 31, 2009 22:51:22 GMT 1
Heh, you should meet our politicians and then complain. We're so used to this kind of things going on (and much, much worse) that nothing surprises us anymore (yeah, I know how sad is that... but well). I have to admit that it is kind of surprising to see this kind of things going on in your side of the world, but still, your politicians are just amateurs compared to ours!  |
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Post by Jos Nelsh on Jun 3, 2009 15:12:02 GMT 1
Well Hyde, it's better that we complain now, than that we let it become worse, right?
Frankly, I'm worried about what is becoming of Europe.
Take Italy, for example. President Berlusconi now controls both all the commercial TV channels and the public TV channels. He no longer allows critical journalists to press conferences. In other words: There is no longer freedom of press in Italy! (A 'western' European country!)
For this reason, the Netherlands is going to make a move against Berlusconi in the European parliament. If we take measures against Bulgaria and Rumania for similar reasons, we should do so against Italy as well.
The bad thing about the European elections is that most people are so disillusioned with politics that they're not even going to vote.
I'm not really aware of what is going on in British politics though.
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Hyde
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Post by Hyde on Jun 6, 2009 20:33:01 GMT 1
You're absolutely right, Jos. I was just "joking" about that, of course I seriously think Europeans should start getting more involved in their politics before things get worse. Heh, that's not only restricted to Europeans, obviously... but I think for the rest of us, the thing ain't just not becoming worse, but changing the awful situation we already have... I'm worried about what is becoming of Europe as well. And you gave a great example there with Italy. I don't think I've told you guys, but I have double citizenship, so I'm not only Argentine, I'm also Italian. I even get to vote in Italian elections (i.e. right now I have to vote for an Italian referendum), so the whole thing touches me really close. I'm really worried about what's going on in Italy with Berlusconi... not only because of the lack of freedom of press. I'm also worried about where the economic orientation is heading, about the increasing xenophobic notes as reactions to the crisis... among other things. It's sad for me to see Italy taking that path... I always say someone like Berlusconi could easily be an Argentine president (yeah, that badly I think of him ), but I can't believe Italians vote for someone like that... And of course, the whole thing becomes more worrying when you see most of those subjects I mentioned (among others) are becoming an issue all over Europe. From here we have more contact with what happens in Spain and Italy, but as far as I know, even the Netherlands and the Nordic countries seem to be sort of drifting away from their welfare model. Is that right? I ask because if that's right, it'd be pretty depressing for me. I've always considered these countries as some kind of "dreamed countries" (idealizing them a bit, I know, but still... hehe), and I think it would be a real shame if they leave the welfare model turning over to the neo-liberal model instead. |
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hahaha 
