One of my writing goals is called ‘other’. That might be confusing. I suppose a more accurate phrase would be ‘free choice.’ The following is what I do…
The first thing I need is a random number. I could just ask Google but instead I use playing cards. The number cards are taken at face value. The picture cards, including ace, are 15.
I draw a card, if I was doing it now it would be a four.(Diamonds if you’re interested but it is irrelevant.) Then I go to the fourth spot in my writing list. Actually there are more layers to it than that but I want to limit how much I bore you.
When ‘other’ came up this time I decided I would work on this blog post. On other occasions it might be something else.
The main focus of my writing is my novel. The whole point of taking a sabbatical is to get it done. It is currently at 99 pages. There are another 77 pages that need to be edited and checked.
I’ve mentioned before that I am using a Freewrite for my first drafts and it has been invaluable. There are a lot of spelling errors but it still helps to get the words down.
This blog post will be rather random. I could very well make that observation again and again as I do these. The idea is 500 ~words and then stop. But you knew that as it is the title of the post. It will be stream of consciousness so it will shift gears in unpredictable ways – even to me.
Did you see Eurovision? It was an interesting event this year. To me it seemed more calm than usual. I have to say though no songs stood out to me – in either direction as good or bad. There was, for example, a completely forgettable song called “Unforgettable.”
The UK entry was terrible.
One thing I find especially fascinating about Eurovision is the voting. I don’t just mean for this year I mean in general. The voting is complicated. All you really need to know is that half the votes come from a jury of experts and the other half come from the public.
The jury votes are announced one-by-one by a representative from each country. It doesn’t take long to see that the eventual winner is going to come down to one of two countries.
I would have expected the votes to be more evenly spaced out. If each country puts their best. (They do not.) Then it might be expected that another country would agree with that assessment. Thus, at the end, the votes would be fairly evenly spaced. This never happens. This year the winning song got 36 times as many votes as the song at the bottom of the table.
I wonder if there is a lesson in all of this. I don’t know I am just a blogger. However it has to be said, or at least I want to say it, that the European continent ( more or less) seems to be in agreement on the subject of music.
It is rare that my favorite wins however most of the time I can at least see why they won. This year I am not sure I had a favourite.
I went off on this subject for longer in the original draft and now seem to have come to a natural end. Still I have words below this so I might as well see what else can be written.
I apologize for such a long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one. Mark Twain
It would seem that the rest of what I wrote back on the 15th is all waffle. Mark Twain was right. Making stuff shorter actually takes longer. It is illogical but it is also true. I could go on and give you some bad metaphors involving Swedish meatballs and their Welsh equivalent. (Google it) However I believe I will cut off the post at this point. See you next time.
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
Saturday was the grand final of the 60th Eurovision song contest. Yes, you read that write, there have now been 60 Eurovision Song Contests. You many now shudder.
The Eurovision Song Contest is always a mixed bag. It can be a tad ridiculous, political, and, if I’m honest, in places awful – but I wouldn’t miss it for anything.
The winner this year was Sweden.
This song, as you can see, had great use of the possibilities of modern staging. Though I’m not so sure it would have fared so well had this been a radio show.
My favorite of the night was Hungary.
This was a nice calm song which didn’t feel the need to punch to the high notes. As you can see it was beautifully performed. War and peace are often discussed in Eurovison songs but they are usually just a bit too jolly. This one is effective because it speaks of the problems we have by hinting at hope.
I liked the Russian entry too, which came second, it was my favorite of the ones that could have won. The singer here is cute after all. In all seriousness though I think it is a good song but given the politics of Russia it might have been best for them not to win.
I have to mention the UK entry too. On first hearing it I wasn’t sure but it grew on me. I wonder if the UK, and the rest of the big 5, attending the semi-finals might actually be adventitious.
Also I’m not sure why the UK entry is in a 1920s America style. Maybe next year we could have an entry in Welsh, Scottish, Irish, or one of the many other languages present in the UK.
In closing this post I want to add my congratulations to Ireland for their vote of equal marriage.
Since the beginning of the year I’ve been learning Welsh. It is slow progress but my aim is to be fluent in five years. I’ve started listing to Meinir Gwilym, a Welsh singer, to start to expose myself to the language.
My father introduced me to the work of Meinir Gwilym over a decade ago. It’s interesting listing to music in a language you don’t know well. I recognise a word or two here and there but mostly I’m left to guess what it all means.
One song, Cachu Ar y Walia, sounds like a typical Eurovision song. You know the type arms in the air waving from side-to-side.
Well, as you can see from the video, the actual translation is ‘There’s shit on the walls.’ Since ‘cachu’ hasn’t resisted in my mind as a swear word its easy to find myself muttering the song while at work. Fortunately I’m also rather self conscious so would never actually be singing above a whisper.
I think I once sang a Klingon drinking song while wiping tables.
Two weeks ago the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Denmark. As I was at a wedding on the actual day I’ve only just been able to see the show. So this may be a little late but I felt it was worth talking about. I think that this year the standard of entries was excellent. All the songs were good. I can say that with conviction and it is great to be able to include the UK in that statement. We’ve had some atrocious entries. This year Molly did very well and really deserved more votes. Terry Wogan or Graham Norton always remind us that we can’t vote for the UK. This was probable the only time, certainly in the last few years, where I’d want to vote for the UK.
Aside from not screaming ‘make it stop’ when hearing our entry it was an important year. The winning entry was:
This gives me a sense of hope for humanity. I know that that is overstating things a tad, but Conchita Wurst, a drag act being able to win speaks volumes. It shows the possibility that we might one day have peace and tolerance. It is the topic that Eurovision songs are most known for.
I also feel that the song, rather than the staging, was voted for this year. Mainly because this song didn’t win.
Its not a terrible song. If it had won it would have been more because of boobs rather than beat. I’m sorry about that one. My favorite was Calm After the Storm. I liked Tick-Tock too but Calm After the Storm had nice simple staging and it is a song contest.
In the UK there tends to be this idea that was shouldn’t compete as we never win. This is really silly. We last won in 1997. Even if countries took it in turns to host it, rather than a popular vote, it wouldn’t have come round to our turn yet. So there is no conspiracy. We need to not win for a lot longer than 17 years before you can say we never win!
Unstable Orbit 