25 May 2008

Euro vision

Finally .. I could take part in the voting. And live!

But by 36 euro cents didn't go much towards the final outcome. I put in for France, with their eccentric bearded minimalist pop star, who if you are optimistic sounded a bit like Jarvis Cocker/ Serge Gainsbourg, and had funny back-up singers performing the "do do do" refrain wearing cocktail dresses and fake beards.

Other than that Kirsta, Kristen and Cornsie and me had a good girls night in, with some Spanish wine, organic salads and dips and such from the farmers' market, and our own highly complex in-house voting process.

Euro vision, gotta love it, I think the traditional zaniness that you come to know and love were put out there in style by Boznia Herzegovina (spotty dress/washing line/ some strange love story with a man with slicked down hair), Latvia (With a pirate themed song and constumes), Russia (who had a genuine ice skater in their piece, so must have included a mini ice-rink in the stage setting) and Croatia (for one of my favourites, slightly gypsy/ tango-y number with a disco beat) .

Update: Null device has posted a handy cut-and-keep tabulated summary with a star system under "odd", "gloss", "cheese" and useful notes like "live chicken on stage".

Photos c/o BBC here

Oh and possible worst number: Azerbaijan, first time entrants with a god-awful hair metal number, performed in campy angel costumes and including ear-piercing pseudo-vibrato high notes. A travesty.

3 May 2008

Koninginnesdag

queen beatrix
boat jam 5 pm

Queens Day. April 30. As predicted Amsterdam went completely mental. Boats and Orange are clearly the go. And games like the one where you buy three eggs to ditch them at someone wearing a plastic bin liner. Click the photos to go to flickr page.