Saturday dance party, sleepy Sunday
May. 15th, 2022 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I'm very tired, and have spent most of the day (apart from a long, stretchy yoga class this morning) lying around and scrolling idly through social media. Sometimes, that's how the weekend turns out, and that's okay.
The big thing this weekend was, of course, the Eurovision final. Don't click on the cut if you're worried about being spoiled for the results (although I imagine anyone who cares will know by now).
Matthias and I ensconced ourselves by the TV with prosecco and Italian snacks. While declaring I wanted to just watch the thing instead of livetweeting it, I almost immediately got sucked into Twitter, where everyone was having a lot of fun.
I was, as always, a vocally supportive fan of #TeamMoldova — but when their song is a chaotic mess of a folk party anthem celebrating Moldovan-Romanian brotherhood and European rail travel, how could I not jump on board? I think I ended up voting for them about ten times (as well as voting once for France, and once for Norway).
The yawning chasm between the jury voting and the public was particularly ridiculous this year: the jury votes were piling up for every bland ballad, the public were throwing their weight behind songs with a bit of fun and life in them (e.g. the tedious and boring Swiss ballad got lots of jury votes and literally not a single public vote, Moldova got something like ten points from the juries and two hundred from the public). For some reason, loads of people seemed to like the UK song, which confused and terrified the UK public, who are used to being at the bottom of the table. For a while, 'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?' was trending on UK Twitter.
But of course, there was never going to be any winner other than Ukraine. The song itself is not to my taste, but I'm happy that they won, and feel the result was deserved and appropriate (they got something like 400 points from the public votes). Eurovision has never been about the quality of the music, and honestly, anything that lifts the spirits is fine by me. I just hope the contest can be held next year in a safe, free, and rebuilt Ukrainian city.
The![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
once_upon_fic collection has gone live. I'll post more about my gift, and other works I enjoyed from the collection after author reveals — I never post rec posts during anon periods as I want authors to get full credit for their work — but I'm delighted with the gift I received. It's a sharp, perceptive story based on 'The Sealskin' Icelandic folktale (a variant on the selkie myth) which really digs into the darkness of such stories. For me, selkie stories (or stories about swan maidens, or any other stories about supernatural women captured as human brides) can never be love stories, only horror stories, and that's definitely what I got here — a slow, creeping sense of dread that whispers from the margins, building towards the fic's devastating final lines. I'm so happy with it!
I've started reading my way through the collection, and I would recommend doing the same if you like retellings of fairytales, folktales, or mythology. You don't really need to know canon for most of the stuff I've read so far, but if you feel it would help, all canonical material is freely available online and aggregated here.
And that's pretty much been my weekend.
The big thing this weekend was, of course, the Eurovision final. Don't click on the cut if you're worried about being spoiled for the results (although I imagine anyone who cares will know by now).
Matthias and I ensconced ourselves by the TV with prosecco and Italian snacks. While declaring I wanted to just watch the thing instead of livetweeting it, I almost immediately got sucked into Twitter, where everyone was having a lot of fun.
I was, as always, a vocally supportive fan of #TeamMoldova — but when their song is a chaotic mess of a folk party anthem celebrating Moldovan-Romanian brotherhood and European rail travel, how could I not jump on board? I think I ended up voting for them about ten times (as well as voting once for France, and once for Norway).
The yawning chasm between the jury voting and the public was particularly ridiculous this year: the jury votes were piling up for every bland ballad, the public were throwing their weight behind songs with a bit of fun and life in them (e.g. the tedious and boring Swiss ballad got lots of jury votes and literally not a single public vote, Moldova got something like ten points from the juries and two hundred from the public). For some reason, loads of people seemed to like the UK song, which confused and terrified the UK public, who are used to being at the bottom of the table. For a while, 'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?' was trending on UK Twitter.
But of course, there was never going to be any winner other than Ukraine. The song itself is not to my taste, but I'm happy that they won, and feel the result was deserved and appropriate (they got something like 400 points from the public votes). Eurovision has never been about the quality of the music, and honestly, anything that lifts the spirits is fine by me. I just hope the contest can be held next year in a safe, free, and rebuilt Ukrainian city.
The
once_upon_fic collection has gone live. I'll post more about my gift, and other works I enjoyed from the collection after author reveals — I never post rec posts during anon periods as I want authors to get full credit for their work — but I'm delighted with the gift I received. It's a sharp, perceptive story based on 'The Sealskin' Icelandic folktale (a variant on the selkie myth) which really digs into the darkness of such stories. For me, selkie stories (or stories about swan maidens, or any other stories about supernatural women captured as human brides) can never be love stories, only horror stories, and that's definitely what I got here — a slow, creeping sense of dread that whispers from the margins, building towards the fic's devastating final lines. I'm so happy with it!I've started reading my way through the collection, and I would recommend doing the same if you like retellings of fairytales, folktales, or mythology. You don't really need to know canon for most of the stuff I've read so far, but if you feel it would help, all canonical material is freely available online and aggregated here.
And that's pretty much been my weekend.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-15 04:41 pm (UTC)Ukraine was always going to win. Pity points or not, I myself like folk instruments paired with technobeats. It was just horrifying to hear the announcer going "The Ukraine band got special permission to perform at the contest, but afterwards they will return to the frontline."
I did not understand the Spain landslide though? I get that public are horny for (female, we were mostly robbed the dude-) flesh, but that the judges were so into it was well? Hm.
Moldova's point deluge was so entertaining to watch xD Jury: Ballads! The general audience: TRAIN SONG! Switzerland was brutal though, 0 points when everyone else got at least some from the public... Maybe this'll teach them not to send in anymore sadboy weepies :p
no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:48 pm (UTC)I do too, which is why I liked Go_A, Ukraine's group from last year, who I felt were better at this particular musical subgenre. As you say, Ukraine were always going to win and I wanted them to win, I just wish they'd won with a song I liked more! The band themselves seem lovely.
Moldova's point deluge was so entertaining to watch xD Jury: Ballads! The general audience: TRAIN SONG!
I loved this so much!
no subject
Date: 2022-05-15 04:42 pm (UTC)In the end, I was quite happy Ukraine won! I'm glad we could show them our support, if only in this tiny way <3
no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:49 pm (UTC)To be honest, this is my favourite aspect of Eurovision, even more than the music!
I was happy Ukraine won too, and my personal feelings about the song are kind of irrelevant — I wanted them to win, and I was very pleased when they did.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-15 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-16 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-16 07:29 pm (UTC)That sounds amazing!
For some reason, loads of people seemed to like the UK song, which confused and terrified the UK public, who are used to being at the bottom of the table. For a while, 'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?' was trending on UK Twitter.
Lol! I love this!
I heard Mika was helping host this year, which just delights me as I have been a Mika fan since his first album was released.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:54 pm (UTC)Mika was great as one of the co-hosts! I think he's been judging the Italian version of one of those music reality TV shows, and I think he also speaks fairly fluent French, which you need for hosting Eurovision. In the intermission he did a medley of a bunch of his songs.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 10:45 pm (UTC)I unfortunately can't find a good video of the Mika performance, but I'm so glad he got to do it! I'm pretty sure he actually grew up in France.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-16 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 04:56 pm (UTC)