Evenin' world! I have a little catching up to do.
So I've managed to work out most of the kinks in my final two essay plans (one of which I shall need to put into action starting tomorrow - eep!) but I may still be lacking in a supporting article or two for psychoanalysis....
I've finished Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and I'm amazed at how often he felt the need to mention 'darkness'. I know it's in the title, but could he have reminded a reader any more? Well at least some passages can go toward my explanation of The Uncanny.
The biggest deal for my yesterday, however, was of course the Eurovision Song Contest! A big congratulations to Ukraine for winning this year, it was rather unexpected, especially now a new points system has been implemented whereby votes are cast for country-specific juries AND the general public. The public's points are announced after which meant almost the entire leaderboard was turned on its head.
I won't bore you with a detailed run-down of all the acts but maybe just a few of my favourites:
Cyprus gave an unexpected (but very welcome for me) rock performance with a song called Alter Ego, full of electric guitars and musicians in cages (damn aesthetics!). I'd've given them 12 points.
Georgia were a similar case with an indie-rock song called Midnight Gold, and a sound that was a mash-up of Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. It was genuinely refreshing to be able to hear the instruments! Another 12 points from me!
What I came to notice this time around was the division of most songs into the generic male love song and the generic female power ballad. But in amongst all of them were some gems, like Russia (the bookies favourite) who made use of the screen behind him beautifully. For the women, it had to be either Austria, who I described as being sweet yet strong like a rose wine, and resmbling a princess, or Italy, a beautiful little song in Italian with just the right level of volume, sung from a little island in the middle of the stage.
Hungary also came through with a song which almost matched the intensity of the stage visuals (cracking lava floor, lightning, Tibetan drum) and Poland, whose vocalist resembled a youthful Captain Hook in his red frock coat.
But once the points were all in, Ukraine came out on top with a more traditional, cultural song called 1944 (about World War 2, no doubt). It felt a little Kate Bush-esque. I gave her 7 out of 10 which isn't as high as some of the others, but I'm not that disappointed.
Anyway, that's my report of last night. Time to wind down some more until bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment