Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Springtime


Ahhh, springtime. Admiring tulips while kissed by the sun. Listening to chirping birds. Wondering about what the cat is up to. Knowing it can’t be anything good. Looking forward to Eurovision. Especially now that Iceland has yet again made it to the final competition this coming Saturday.

For four out of five years now, Iceland has been the tenth nation of ten to be announced to make it out of our semi-final round. It is said to be read out in no special order. No one here believes that. There is some conspiracy – we have just to discover what propels it and why.
 
The Icelandic song this year is called “No prejudice” and the band “Pollapönk”. The title of the song refers to the message contained within the lyrics – i.e. do not tease, bully or belittle others. You will not be able to catch this by listening to the song as it is impossible to make out the lyrics. But anyhow, the original version it was in Icelandic and those proficient in the language could make out the words. Needless to say Icelanders were quite pleased with the essence of the song as no one wants to champion bullying. But despite this, during last night’s semi-final competition, it became obvious that the message did not stick. The Twitterfest that ensued contained scathing comments regarding other competitors, their performance, costume and physical appearance. But as one twitter-user pointed out today: What is Eurovision without sarcasm?

We have probably been made fun of in other countries during our performance. The UK media pegged our singers as “hipster teletubbies with ZZ Top backup singers”. Not all that far off. Here is the song so you can judge for yourself:
 


It should be noted that the ZZ Top backup singer in purple is a member of the Icelandic parliament.
 
In the spring of 2009 that followed our spectacular bank crash - our contestant Johanna Guðrún who landed second in the main event was noted during the televised event as having had to walk from Iceland since we could not afford a plane ticket for her. Hence the tattered condition of her dress.
 
 
All young men in Iceland today wear a beard. If they Vikings were to rise from their graves no one would notice. Apparently beards are now cool. All the Icelandic male models on billboards and in the magazines have beards. My son even has one. I asked him about it and he said he wore it because of his iPhone, not because it is fashionable. Apparently, clean-shaven his cheekbones would function as fingers on the screen and cut his calls or set off apps. Women apparently do not have this same problem as their faces are smaller. I don’t know. I suspect he thinks beards are cool. But then again. Almost all young people here have iPhones so it would explain the popularity of the beard. I am thinking of contacting the University of Iceland tomorrow to see if they are doing research into the correlation of beards and iPhones. If the answer is no I will suggest they do.

But that is all for now. I must go and check on my garden. It has a tendency to do its own thing if left unattended. Two years ago a cousin of mine came for a visit and complimented us on the garden, adding that more people should take this “fuck the system” approach to their yards. Since that was absolutely not what we were shooting for we immediately hired a summer gardener. He will be starting again next week. Till then I am on my own.

Me against the weeds. Complicated by my less than superior knowledge as to what is a weed and what is a desirable plant. Maybe my family and I should just embrace the “fuck the system” garden style.

Yrsa - Wednesday

10 comments:

  1. This week I watched the first of Eurovision semi-finals for the first time. With all due respect to Europe, the three MCs were awful - tense, stiff, and unfunny. Fortunately their lack of humour was more than offset by the unintentional humour of the performances. Most performers seemed to need a distraction in the background - a man who ran in a barrel - and fell out once; a roller-skater who wandered around the stage; supposedly good-looking men who tried to synchronize in a dance; a supposedly good-looking man who lifted, swung, and twirled the female singer while she was singing; dark, shadowy figures who emerged from dark corners of the stage; as well as over-the-top lighting and pyrotechnics. I have to admit I never gave the Icelandic band a chance - each had a brightly coloured suit, each of a different colour. I agree with Yrsa - the only way they made it into the final was through a conspiracy. The other really noteworthy act, which also made it to the final, was two Russian female singers (maybe twins) who sang most of their song with their hair tied together. When their song was announced to progress to the finals, they looked as astonished as everyone else. My favorite performance - from Portugal - did not make it through. My least favorite - what appeared to be a man singing about a woman (I can't remember the country) while she was apparently being sexually assaulted in the background - made it through with acclaim. But then what do I know about what's hot and what's not in Europe.

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    1. Spot on Stan - the women tied together by their hair are twins. I guess they were unable to rustle up siamese twins signers so this was the next best thing.

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  2. PS. I can't wait for Thursday night's second semi-final.

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  3. The whole about Euorvision is to make you feel normal. I'm waiting for the three legged yodelling hermaphrodite....

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    1. Hi Caro - now that you say it, I did feel a lot more normal watching than I usually do. Come Saturday's show I susoect I will feel like a statistic.

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  4. "Till then..." Is that some sort of subtle garden lament as deeply buried in your words as the message in ZZnotTOPS' lyrics? I, too, can't wait until Saturday night, Yrsa. Go Iceland, beat sadists!

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    1. Iceland will win this at some point - then you must come and see this live Jeff. The winner takes it all - the competition is held in the country of last years winner. We really want to win but we don't want to hold the competition. There is no venue big enough here and you need to buy all sorts of props and stage lights that we cannot afford. But we still want to win.

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  5. Good lord. That song. That video. Must go wash brain now.

    Lisa (Brackmann)

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  6. I can't believe I'm watching this... and it's all your fault. So far it's shown that men from the Ukraine can be made to run like gerbils for their ladies, Belarus men do watch cable TV replays of Ocean's Eleven, Azerbaijan set designers are definitely into phallic backgrounds, and Iceland RULES! The rainbow boys are really cool and have my vote. No need to watch more...but I will.

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