Eurovision 2013 Post Mortem

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eurovision, music

As with previous years, the songs I liked didn’t get many votes (although Azerbaijan’s wasn’t bad), but the winner, Denmark, wasn’t as sucky as last year’s winner (a horrible Bjork wannabe from Sweden).  The host, Petra Mede, was fantastic, and I thought the butterfly motif (with butterflies decorated as each country’s flag in the artist bumper) was neat.  Two of the best things were definitely Petra’s witty “Swedish Smörgåsbord” song presenting the host country, and comedian/singer Sarah Dawn Finer’s inspired “The Winner Takes it All”, neither of which were in the actual competition:

Overall, Sweden’s presentation of the contest was mostly top notch and inspired (except I’m in agreement with Graham Norton, Green Room host Eric Saade was unfunny and painful to watch).  Perhaps because a lot of the Eastern Bloc countries did not make the finals, the voting was a bit more balanced, although the Scandinavian bloc was very visible.  But as we all know, Eurovision voting is pretty meaningless.  Here were my favorites:

Krista Siegfrids – Marry Me (Finland)- My absolute favorite of the show, and the best song in my opinion, with the bonus marriage equality message at the end (which made Turkey boycott the broadcast).  It did not do well in the voting (equality in general was never going to get a lot of points from, say, Azerbaijan), but was catchy enough I caught myself humming it in the shower.

Cascada – Glorious (Germany)- Everyone was complaining this sounded just like last year’s winner, but I hated last year’s winner and I loved this song.  Maybe it was because this singer could actually sing.  Great performance as well by Cascada.  But Germany was never going to get any votes in the political voting.

Roberto Bellarosa – Love Kills (Belgium)- I didn’t particularly want to like this song.  The beginning is not great, the singer is only 18, and my god, the backup dancers were horrible, but its chorus was very catchy.  I’m not sure what the song’s actually about, but it was fun.

Alyona Lanskaya – Solayoh (Belarus)- This song reminded me of my favorite from last year, Eleftheria Eleftheriou’s “Aphrodisiac”.  Catchy Euro dance pop, although Eleftheria had better male dancers.  Another song I’m not sure what it’s about, but I enjoyed it.

Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis – Alcohol Is Free (Greece) – This is the one everyone was talking about (like the Russian grannies last year).  I thought it was both a clever mash-up of traditional Greek folk songs and ska.  And the band’s choreography was great.

Eythor Ingi – Ég Á Líf (Iceland)- An odd choice, but kudos for singing in Icelandic.   Eythor has a great voice (and memorable hair).

Dina Garipova – What If (Russia)- Another one that was never going to win (there were actual boos in the Green Room when Russia got some high votes), but was the best of the slow songs submitted.  And it didn’t rely on cheap tactics like hiring a giant (looking at you Ukraine).

Farid Mammadov – Hold Me (Azerbaijan)- Of the top performers, this one was ok, although all the above I thought were better songs.  The staging with the box was odd, and actually to me looked like it was enacting a bi-sexual love triangle, but since it was close-minded Azerbaijan, I’m sure that was not the intent.  The dancer in the box did well, although Farid seemed rather arrogant to me.

I was not a fan of the winner, Denmark (super annoying flute), or the other high placer, Ukraine (if you’re going to hire a giant, maybe use him for more than three seconds.  And don’t sing like a Disney princess).  Italy’s entry sucked as well, although it’s gone multi-platinum in Europe for some reason.  And although I didn’t like it, Romania’s Cezar was sufficiently odd, that it deserves a mention.  At least it did not come last! (poor Ireland).  There was a lot of good will for Bonnie Tyler’s (ho-hum) song in the contest, but it couldn’t overcome the political voting against the UK.

New Pompeii Show in London: an elusive, ever-changing quest

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art, pan, Pompeii

But then a sculpture such as that of Pan making love to a goat plunges us back into darkness and uncertainty, and makes the chasm of two millennia feel as abyss-like as ever. We will never be able fully to comprehend what the sculpture meant to the Romans who first saw it. Where we see smut or rape, perhaps they saw comedy or even tenderness. All we can say with certainty is that their attitudes towards sex and violence differed radically from ours. Understanding the past is an elusive, ever-changing quest.

from the review by Alastair Sooke on the BBC site.

Matt Alber is amazing

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A Murder of Crows on the Wall, crows, matt alber, video

In a new DVD, Matt Alber gives new arrangements to some of his songs by involving a cello string quartet. The result is truly amazing and they deliver an incredible performance.

In the clip below, the song “Old Ghosts” even includes a line that jumped out at me with this viewing. The novel I’m currently writing involves initiates to the Roman cult of Mithras, or “Crows”. It is a murder mystery set in the 3rd century province of Britain, and although the topic of the song and the novel are very different, the line “I hear the crows, they know what nobody knows…” hit me in the heart.

Old Ghosts (from With Strings Attached) from Matt Alber on Vimeo.

You can find Matt’s DVD here at his website: http://www.mattalber.com/cellos/

Rome, 1920′s CE

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archaeology, Rome

Via Rogue Classicism, here is a short video showing a bit of how Rome’s monuments looked in the 1920′s.  This was before Mussolini began the wide-spread clearance and isolation of these monuments with state-sponsored archaeology. 

I was particularly tickled so see cars using the Arch of Constantine as a traffic circle.  There are some errors though.  At about 1:57 the “House of the Vestals” is misnamed.  What is shown looks like the Basilica Julia (unless the image is reversed given the placement of the Temple of Antoninus in the background).  The “Temple of Vesta” is also absolutely misidentified at 0:37 since back then most people thought any round temple had to be to Vesta.  What is shown is actually the (variously-named) Temple of Hercules Victor from the area of the Forum Boarium, not the Vesta Temple.  

Class Warfare, 2nd century CE

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class, marcus aurelius, meditations, roman

A quote from the Meditations (I.11) of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (Penguin’s Staniforth translation):

To my mentor Fronto I owe the realization that… our patrician families tend for the most part to be lacking in the feelings of ordinary humanity.

The textbook writing that I’ve been doing over the last six months has really brought home to me the gap between the elites and non elites in the ancient world, and the ability for the elites to rationalize and justify not only their privileged position but also the lot of the masses.  “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” indeed. 

This was in a section of the Meditations where Aurelius talks about the corruptible influence of absolute power, and that when you have so much, and can buy and sell your way out of anything, often the first casualty is your compassion toward your fellow humans.  Amongst the rich and elite families of his time, and of our time I would strenuously argue, that absence becomes internalized and fossilized.  

Comede divites

Rome Graffiti

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ads, graffiti, HBO, Rome

Just a quick call-out to the great advertising HBO did for the second season of Rome which saw pictures of the cast scrawled with graffiti. I was reminded of this recently and am still amused by the clever use of this ancient trope, which was also a plot point in that season.

Here is some more Roman graffiti, always fun reading, and a rare insight into the lives of the non-elites in the ancient world.

Assassins Creed 3. Or: We deserve better historical video games

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Assassins Creed, video games, writing

Happy New Year!

I now have some time to return to my Satyricon commentary before my teaching starts for the new quarter, but I also wanted to add some new content.  So while I ready the next bit of Fellini, here is the first of some video game commentary.

I love historical video games, and played several this past year.  My biggest disappointment, however, hands down, was Assassins Creed 3.

I really wanted to like this game.  AC2 was fun (if you jettisoned all connections to reality and ethics and went along with the ride).  AC Brotherhood was more of the same but had a (mostly) faithful recreation of Renaissance-era Rome, allowing you to imagine- and climb around- still ruinous ruins of ancient Rome.  Plus you got to climb the Pantheon repeatedly.  The main story lost its steam way before I lost the novelty factor of running around Rome.