Eurovision Song Contest WTF?

After years of not watching the Eurovision Song Contest, today I forced my man to watch it with me.
I used to enjoy it very much but that was many moons ago.
I had so much WTF happening there, it’s almost sad what has become of this contest.

• Almost all the songs sounded alike, as if the same person wrote them all. What a bad sign for music culture…
• Whoever wrote the moderations for the presenters -> You are not funny! You are cringy at best. (That is not good, it is annoying)
• The presenters sang a song together. That song was not only bad, and way too much of everything. The fact that it was present as some kind of satire and supposed to be funny in the same forced way as the moderations, added to the “wtf- factor”.
• So you invite Justine Timberlake and then let him cheaply perform basically a medley of his old songs but present as if it is new? Are you for real? How stupid do you think your viewers are?
• As the points were given, the other countries had so horrible, bad backgrounds and sometimes the outfits were just so ridiculous. Come on, when you are streaming to such a mass of people, you should put more than 2 minutes worth of effort in those two things if you want to represent your country.

Tiny rant here:

Where are the actual life performances? I think only 3 artists actually performed live with a band, as in not a playback on which you sing. That’s poor standards. This contest used to pride itself by how great and talented the artists were that came on stage and perform. There was a very high standard on who could actually perform there. Now it is just another music show with mostly untalented people. I stopped counting how many “singers” weren’t able to hold a note.
And just to mention. I spend my childhood and most of my teenage years on stages. I know that stress and fear can do things to your performance. BUT big BUT these people are supposed to be professionals. If they are, they should not let it get to them to a degree where something as basic as holding a note, cannot be done anymore. If you sing every day because that is what you do, it is your live and your job and your hobby, then holding a note cannot ever be difficult for you.
Before I stopped singing, it was almost impossible for me to break a note or not hit it spot on. And I was not a professional. I just sang a lot, my voice was somewhat trained, my ears had almost absolute hearing at the point. So if me, not professional, can hold a note on stage, why can’t a professional. You gotta be kidding me to let that be on your stage.

End rant

How about we go through the performances and what my man and I just happened to notice. Because although the music was horrible from an artistic standpoint of view (most of the time) and the standards for this competition have obviously sunk to an all-time low, at least it was funny to watch all the fail.

So from start to end:

1. Belgium: Moved waaay too much.
2. Czech Republic: Made up for Belgium by not moving at all. Fun-fact, that song was called stay (or something like that)
3. Netherlands: Dutch cowboy who should have performed a country song. So yea wild west in the Netherlands I guess.
4. Azarbajan: Singer couldn’t sing but at least one of the male dancers was belly free and fun to watch.
5. Hungary: Some kind of Sexy Bambie guy with a smokey voice. He cannot sing but at least he brought a drummer who didn’t hit his drum and his background”singers” were really good at whistling and skipping.
6. Italy: At least this singer didn’t sing in English for a change, but in Italian. She was not moving at all, maybe glued to the stage on that green spot, who knows. The song did not move out of the range of half an octave but those 4 notes, she hit them well.
7. Israel: The most cliche emo I have ever seen. Black everything, even the stage apart from the blue big star he stood on. And wtf was going on with the gymnsasts on stage. Was that some kind of artsy statement?
8. Bulgaria: Nice coat, hot babe, shiny lights on her costume… The song was made of refrain, one line, refrain… sad
9. Sweden: Some babyfaced guy talking the song and eating the mic at the same time. He probably had more foundation (make up) on his face than a beauty guru on youtube.
10. Germany: What’s with the Anime fangirl and the ugly stage with odd trees that have neon green laser lights coming out of the branches while the rest is in nice dark blue and purple colours on the stage… And I thought I am colour blind…
11. France: At least not only singing in English but also in French. But the song and performance were just unimpressive as fuck.
12. Poland: A rocker with a great rock voice singing a shit song (not rock) while wearing the costume of a circus director.
13. Australia: because every one knows that Asian-Australian girls are from Europe. Good voice. Too bad that half the song was stolen from another song.
14. Cyprus: Finally music. A rockband actually performing on stage properly. And the song sounded like a song instead of some pop-manufactured blargh
15. Serbia: Dead eyes, probably trying to look mysterious. Good voice and big budget for hair clips. She brought a sexy guy and some shield maidens on stage.
16. Lithuania: His choreographer must have been a girl. too much echo in the song. Also trying to be sexy – how cute.
17. Croatia: Literally treehugger… Wtf was that dress? Also kind of asian theme to the song/ Sounded like a mix of Japanese and Cranberries styles. Good voice though.
18. Russia: Final Fantasy much? Anyway very impressive stage performance. How unfortunate that the song was complete shit.
19. Spain: A mix of 90s, Madonna, and La Isla Bonita. Not impressive, but at least very loud, eh.
20. Latvia: Was unable to hit a single note. Always a tiny tad off. Why was he screaming at the audience so much? Why so angry. In the end he was like “Screw you guys! I’m taking my jacket off!”
21. Ukraine: Main lyric was “uuuhuuuhuuu” and apparently this lady can only gesture with her left hand. Well done…
22. Malta: Skyping the song in? So much Mariah Carrey tryhard and what’s with the odd frog man doing gymnastics and handstands?
23. Georgia: Roxette style rock music and nicely done because performed live with band. Had an interesting sound but was very repetitive.
24. Austria: meh
25. United Kingdom: Guys going for the gay vibe? Who knows. The one who “played” the guitar didn’t even touch the strings. Come on.
26. Armenia: The background track was from another song (at least in the beginning). Kinda naked performer, looking good. Who needs to sing well if you got that body?

If you want to watch the thing to know what I am referring to, just re-watch it on YouTube 🙂

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Dear God

This is an open letter to the Facebook God in reaction to a recent post of his:

Dear God,

I am writing this open letter to you here on my blog because I have more to say than what I feel fitting for a facebook comment.

Although most of the time I agree with your posts, this time I had a deep reaction.

This has many layers so I am trying to organize the points I want to address (I did not bother to read through the 1.3k comments on your post):

• Comparing the Holocaust with what is happening now is not ok.
  Nobody is killing or hurting or hunting down anybody. In these marches, although done by absolute right and left wing extremists, they are what is considered free speech. They wand Muslims out. In Germany you can march for whatever you want to. As long as things aren’t getting violent and they “just” shout and march, things are ok.
• “Dear Germany” is also not ok.
  It is not Germany that does the marches. There are two movements that do them: HoGeSa (Hooligans against Salafists) and PeGiDa (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West). Those two and noone else is making A LOT of noise and sadly, because media is pushing and hyping it a lot, this is the only thing that is coming through to other countries right now.
• The marches have been happening for at least a year in the UK already.
  I know that people may thing that the UK has more of a right to those marches because they have “valid concerns” but in reality, due to Germany’s history, people from muslim countries have been brought into the country for the past 30-ish years. And as welcoming as Germany has been, those people that were brought in, did not leave when they were supposed to and have been trying to push their belief systems into public life just as much as they are doing it now in the UK.

Apart from the points above, looking at reality a bit more:

• In Germany Muslims have succeeded in taking part of German culture away. By now, christmas markets may not be called Christmas markets in many cities any longer because Muslims where the ones complaining that this cultural thing is disturbing their freedom of religion. Christmas markets have nothing to do with religion but now they have to be called “Holiday Markets”.
• Muslims have been making a fuss about food for many years. The stuff you heard last year in the UK about subway not selling pork because of the pressing Muslim demand, it is just the tip of the iceberg. Go into Kindergartens and schools and you will find that the food, ordered for children, has been pork-less for a long time, because the Islamic belief system doesn’t allow to eat that.
• Islam in general is behaving childish and people have to be allowed to state their opinion about it. Yes, in a civilized manner, so the marches are maybe a bit overkill, but they have to be allowed to say what they think about it. Otherwise we can go back in history and do the crusades but this time they will be muslimic crusades. Why? Because people will turn a blind eye and be nice and mature until it is too late. Every form of extremism should be stopped dead in it’s tracks.
• Muslims have been welcomed with open arms in Germany for many years and because Germany learnt from history, they have been accommodated. Their believes have been respected from the beginning. But guess what happens if you are too welcoming? Look at the UK. Muslim nurses and Doctors being allowed to not wash their hands, Subway stopping to sell pork, Islamic “police” on the streets, Public beheadings in the UK. People in Germany see all this and they panic because they don’t see politicians reacting to what happens in the world and to prevent these things in Germany. Quite the contrary, in Germany, because politicians are so afraid to give the wrong impression (WW2 anyone?) to the world, they keep bending German culture to accommodate

I know, God, this is a very long letter, and you probably didn’t even click the link to it, when I sent it to you. I just feel this is something you should know.
In your post on facebook, you were generalizing and probably ignorant to a lot of facts, so I felt the need to address how deep the issue in Germany actually is.
I am sure that a lot of Germans don’t only agree with this, but they would probably add a few more things that I just left out in order to keep this post on track and relevant.
The “muslim issue” in Germany has a long history and a lot of different layers. Summarized you can say that everybody is scared right now. Those two groups are as scared as a whole lot more people but rather than talking it out, they decide to do marches and as long as they don’t get violent, I personally do not see why they should stop because all they do is express an opinion (yes, a radical one) and underline how scary Muslims actually are, even though they say it is a religion of peace.
Please, don’t tell a whole country to stop a behaviour that only two extremist groups are doing.

Thanks for reading.

Your follower,
Leela

 

Gamescom, I’m coming!

On Wednesday I am flying to Germany to go to gamescom so right now I am just cleaning my place, emptying SD cards, charging batteries, packing, buying stuff, and so on.

I am happy to have a nice ending to my 2 week holiday. Today I noticed that my dark rings under my eyes are less dark and I feel generally more relaxed. Gamescom will be great, especially because I am going there with a completely free and chilled mind.

I travel light so everything that my husband and I are traveling with actually fits on a small armchair and we just bring that one travel-size backpack. Traveling light is good because we don’t have to carry a lot of stuff and moving around is much easier.

I will be meeting up with some people on Wednesday and Saturday and I will be attending gamescom on Thursday and Friday. So much time to stroll around, see all the new games that are coming out, maybe try some games.

Things that are on my list to check out at the gamescom:

• Riot Games / League of Legends
• Cosplay area
• Minecraft
• Nintendo

I am not sure what my husband wants to check out or try. We will probably stand in line a lot if we want to try a few new games. I know there is a great outdoor area where you can sit down and relax a bit.

Also the two free days will be great. Meeting people and doing some sightseeing.

We learnt from our last weekend-holiday and prepared more spending money this time. We prepared 100 Euro spending money per day and I hope that we will be fine this time. Last time we made it home with the last few euro in my pocket being spent on the bus from the airport to our house.

GAMESCOM, I’M COMING!