Eurovision!

This week is Eurovision week over in Oslo. What do you mean, "so what?" Okay, that's a fair question, considering that Eurovision has only recently gained any sort of coverage here in the States. Yay Globalism! Seriously, if you are any sort of fan of American Idol or ABBA, you will get a kick out of this competition.



The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual international competition where each participating country will submit a song in the hopes of it being selected as the best by the rest of participants. The final features 25 live performances of songs (3 minutes maximum length) broadcast across the continent. The participating countries (including those eliminated in the semi-finals) vote for their favorite, but they are not allowed to vote for their own representative. The top 10 from each country will earn points (12, 10, 8, 7, ... 2, 1) and the country/song with the most points wins the contest. The prize is bragging rights and the option of being the host country for the following year's competition.

Although Eurovision is relatively unknown in American culture, there are some influences. ABBA gained fame for performing the Eurovision 1972 winner "Waterloo". Celine Dion's rise to power came on the heels of performing for Switzerland in the late 1980's. This Saturday night or Sunday morning you will likely see a squib on Yahoo News about this year's winning song. It's egalitarian Europop camp and I absolutely love it.

I actually did quite a bit of research about Eurovision in preparation for my comp exam and have since become obsessed with the last couple of entries from the Ukraine:

2008: Ani Lorak "Shady Lady" (Runner-up):



2009: Svetlana Loboda "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)":

Submission Video:



I think this video is awesome. The live performance though...yeesh. The semi-final was pretty bad, but the final performance sounded even worse.

Final Performance:



It also didn't help that she immediately followed the winner of the 2009 contest, who earned the second highest winning point total ever.



That's what we in the biz call an uphill battle.

I'll be posting videos of the contenders for this year's contest over at Rube Goldberg's DVR. Y'all should check it out!

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Funemployment

I've been hearing that term a lot lately, now that I am back in Michigan. Call me a pessimist if you must, but the glossiness fades very quickly no matter how big your fake grin is when uttering the word. However, there are some advantages that are worth exploring as I wait for callbacks from the job hunt:

I got to update my half.com inventory with book that I've been meaning to get rid of for years.

I ran all the way from Dearborn Heights to Dearborn and back again Friday morning. Yes, my mom lives 2 blocks from the border, but I ran all the way to Outer Drive and back so that was a mile or so.

I got to read semi-recreationally this afternoon (though it was continue a book from one of my classes this semester)

I get to post stuff to my blog again. Aren't you lucky?

I don't expect to hear anything about the Oberlin job until next week. Let's see what happens until then, shall we?

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