May 19, 2006

• Since Iceland were not sent through to the final, despite being booed off and swearing at the crowd, I'm not going to bother watching on Saturday. I want Finland to win, just because it's the Eurovision song contest.
• Is Wogan still alive?
• You'll have a cup o' tea, now, Father jb?
• Wogan is still alive, and won't lat anyone else host the BBC coverage of the Eurovision. He claims he loves the contest. But then - he's Irish, innit?
• What's Europe? /Ralph_Wiggum
• ATHENS, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!? Greece -- ten points! Greece... ten points! Aah, good times, good times.
• wogan's alive and coining. 800k sterling per year or 25.64 per minute of air time...
• Jesus Christ in heaven, and the man still can't find a toupee that matches his fuckin' natural hair. I despise Wogan with the intensity of a million white-hot stars going nova. Yet, I always used to watch his chat show obsessively. The man is a fucking mutant svengali of the airwaves. I blame Flora.
• Good lord! And they call Frank Burns ferret face?
• Lordi won - my faith in European Civilisation has been restored.
• lordi were fantastic; a revelation. when the lead singer's wings stretched out, i spat wine all over myself and the cat (who was unfortunate enough to be on my lap at the time).
• It's been all over the news here. The costumes are just amazing. Haven't actually heard the song yet, though.
• It's worth going straight to the HQ video link for the song (above). The song is very catchy and has grown on me (not being a metal fan), but is much much better with the (over the top and yet so very good) video.
• Regrettably, the finals were not graced by Iceland's Silvia Night. A trouper to the last, this remarkable combination of Sue Pollard, Tank Girl and a Roger Dean retrospective took her elimination at the semifinal stage on the chin by utterly losing her shit. Best not listen to this one at work with the speakers on. I'm just sayin'.
• Is that real? I can't tell because the audio isn't synching with her lips.
• Silvia Night is a character, similar in a way to Borat. An actress plays her, & the character is an outrageously egotistic girl who insults people, throws tantrums, etc. The real person isn't actually like that.
• No, really? Honestly. Sometimes I wonder if a soul as trusting as me belongs in this world. Difference being that the Republic of Khazakhstan _hates_ Borat, not unreasonably, whereas - was Iceland's song for Europe selected by the Icelandic people - which would be great - or some shadowy Icelandic Eurovision authority - which would actually be _greater_.
• I'm glad Finland won, but I think Latvia's a capella number and Norway's entry-- a lovely song, delivered by a woman neither wearing revealing clothing nor trying too hard-- deserved a better reception than they got.
• I'm detecting slight sarcasm in Monkey Haus' reply. I'm not entirely sure, it is just a hunch.
• Sorry, Chyren - it was meant more to be "how on Earth did I not realise that", after three seconds of web-fu revealed all. I actually am that gullible. You can gull me, then you can tell me that you haven't gulled me, and I'll believe you. And it was a popular vote, which kind of rocks. I suppose that this kind of self-destruction has been aimed at before - Ralf Poier for Austria, obviously, and Guildo Horn for Germany spring to mind - but never quite this... swearily.
• Oh Monkey haus! "Guildo hat euch Liebe" is now going round and round in my head. A truly beautiful Eurovision moment.
• In Guildo's little world We'll all stick together Tears won't lie, and Dreams will learn to fly That is where I'd like to stay Up there the stars aren't far away I'll send you tokens of love supreme Nut biscuits and raspberry ice cream! Cocking terrifying. If anything was crying out for a Laibach cover version, it's "Guildo hat euch Liebe".
• I liked Latvia's song, though certainly not as much as Lithuania or Finland. I think they wree great singers, but the song wasn't working as well. Was Norway's the elf song? It was alright, but too much like everyone else's. In Eurovision, you have be either a) really good, b) really different, or Russia to do well.
• Norway prides itself on "nil point". This year was a little disappointing.
• (Oh, and I thought Norway's song was good, but mostly because the singer is teh hawt.)
• Fantastic stuff from Ukraine and Romania this year. The French entry was also LOL.
• And very interesting while scary Lesbian Supremacist stuff from Serbia.
• And the Lesbian Supremacists reign supreme.
• Am I sad or just honest that I have a copy of the Eurovision CD this year, and I'm loving it? Okay, there are a couple of real duds, but Ukraine's is just getting better with every time ("Don't live to dance - Dance to live!). And I love Iceland's song as so bad it's brilliant - it's a melodramatic rock ballad with laugh out loud lyrics, though perhaps it wasn't intended to be as hilarious as it is. I'd say that maybe 1/2 of the songs are really worth listening to this year (notably France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, whichever country that opera woman was (Slovenia), Moldova, and of course Serbia - and I have a soft cheesy heart for the entries from Ukraine, Belgium, Iceland, Switzerland). But yes, Serbia's Marija Šerifović totally deserved to win, and not just because I really like girls in tuxedos.
• Eurovision Song Contest - in summary (from Finland, 2007).
• Dustin the Turkey in Irish national final with his song Douze Points? It's hard to explain Dustin. He started as an occasional character who appeared with some puppets (Zig and Zag) doing continuity on Irish children's television. He eventually took over the whole show. His humour is 50% directed at children and 50% directed at adults - lots of political commentary and often saying things that other commentators wouldn't dare say.
• An ad for Dustin's most recent album (yootoob).
• What is this "mingin'" of which the turket speaks?
• minging = smelly, bad, unpleasant, not good.
• Oh, that's some bad puppetering. The Henson fan in me is much too snobby. But very funny.
• Dustin will represent Ireland in the semifinal and Dana is a humourless old git.