Somehow I very much doubt it, but here’s the YouTube link – it’s at 3.25. I’ve screenshotted it, so you can be the judge.
I tell you, some people have way too much time for indulging in idle speculation – especially me.
Music
Policy Wonk’s Delight
Shorter Carpetbagger:
I said a flip flop
the flippie the flippie
to the flip flip flop, and you dont stop the flop…
Musical Interlude
I don’t normally post very many music videos, as my general view of bloggers who do that is that they’re posers showing off how esoteric and hip their taste is. But the news is complete and utter crap from top to bottom and side to side; a 360 degree vista of cack. There’s not a glimmer of anything approaching fun or hope on the horizon, so why the hell not dance? Back via the magic of YouTube to 1979 or vaguely thereabouts, for a nostalgic session – and don’t bogart that joint.
First up to get you all rhythmic and mellow, the Crusaders with ‘Keep That Same Old Feelin”. .
Yes, let’s!
Then it’s two from Rufus and Chaka Khan, from their 1974 Album ‘Rufusized’: first ‘(Please pardon me) You remind me of a friend’ then ‘Stop on by’. Happy days.
Is it funky enough yet? If not, you only have to hear the opening bar to know who this is, baby bubba…
Now that’s wound you up, why not dance round the desk a bit more? It’s Friday, throw caution to the wind and show Accounts your inner funkateer? George Duke, ‘Dukey Stick’:
‘Enough of this funky stuff, white girl, where’s the real soul?’ some of you may ask. (Then again you might not). Anyhow here’s one for you Wiganers and wannabes – Gloria Jones and the original ‘Tainted Love’. Should keep the ’80s types happy too.
Now shut up and let me get back to dancing. A leetle tad more uptempo – Disco Tex and his Sexolettes:
My chiffon is wet darling, my chiffon is wet! Old-skool socialists may like this version even better:
If memory serves, at this point most times I’d be off home in a cab for a cup of tea and watch Rhoda on BBC2. Chillout rooms, who needs chillout rooms?
Not always though; but over that’d best be drawn a very opaque veil. Ah, the 70s, *sigh* – when I was good I was very very good, but when I was bad I was horrid.
Warning: Get Ready For The War By Other Means
It’s springy springy spring trala, the time when all the old pan-European emnities, ethnic tensions, tribal and religious rivalries burst into full horrendous flower on the television screens of a whole continent.
Yes, it’s Eurovision again!
This year it’s being held in Belgrade and the semi finals are about to get underway:
Tue, May. 20th – 1st Eurovision Semi Final – Eurovision 2008
Thu, May. 22nd – 2nd Eurovision Semi Final – Eurovision 2008
Sat, May. 24th – Eurovision Final – Eurovision 2008
Britain’s entry last time was truly horrible both in concept and execution. I mean really, to enter a contest – whilst still in the throes of a massively unpopular, illegal war – with a bunch of uniformed bimbos singing “We’re Flying The Flag”? Could we have been any more arrogant? and then to sing it totally flat in an atmosphere of strained and embarassed silence? It was dire. In that instance the political voting and aesthetic voting happily coincided and the UK got a deserved bugger-all votes.
This is our entry this year, from Andy Abrahams: a nice, jolly, slightly funky seventies pastiche. Ncely innocuous, unlikely to win but itw on’t actively offend, which is always a plus. But bloody hell, he needs to sort out his offkey backing vocalist.
Is it just me, or does that sound like a rewritten version of ‘H.A.P.P.Y. Radio’ by Edwin Starr?
I make no accusations and I’ll leave that judgement to my fellow northern soul fans…
You’ve got 2 weeks to organise your Eurovision party: as per usual I myself willl be doing the Eurovision marathon fortified with massive amounts of beverages, herbs and snacks and accompanied by a lot of snark on IRC. Eurovision is the next best thing we’ve got to an entertaining war, a war with no actual blood shed except when one performer gets a hangnail snagged on another’s sequins, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Lordi might be hideous, but not as hideous as stormtroopers marching down the street.
I already mentioned the voting, which is a whole research topic in itself. As a guide to how it actually works as opposed to how it’s supposed to work (and for an explanation of the whole Turkey/Greece/Cyprus thing) here’s a handy graphic :
Click for bigger version
This year my money is on Ireland to win with their entry from that ineffable and reclusive superstar, Dustin The Turkey.
How could any nation beat that? Irelande Douze Pointe!
Dutch poetry
Palau has a not very high opinion of the melliflousness and poetry of the Dutch language and so far I have not been able to convince her yet… This is another attempt, Jacques Brel singing “Mijn Vlakke Land” (non-Dutch speakers may know it as “Le Plat Pays”). With subtitles even.