“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Tuesday 13 May 2014

Eurovision. More camp than a Nuremberg Rally - but not as frightening.

You would expect that by Tuesday morning all memory of Saturday night's Eurovision Song Contest would have faded and that few people would even remember who the winner was. Not so it seems and still the debate about bearded ladies, Polish porn and Russian homophobia trundles on. Personally I lost interest when Terry Wogan retired and I don't remember Eurovision ever being more than a Saturday night stay-in for the elderly, skint or just musically unhinged. However for the rest of the Europe it's incredibly important and this strange production that is more camp than an Olympic opening ceremony has the power to expose once again all the old fault lines of a continent. Mind you, I suppose that if we must have nationalism and bad songs it's as well that these two curses  are contained together within   this sequined spectacular. Anyway, forward to the World Cup!

1 comment:

Dr Llareggub said...

I am so amused at the media's coverage of a daring bearded drag act. Our progressives in the media,unaware of working class history, present the crap served up in this ridiculous show as something that is breaking new ground, questioning moral certainties and prejudice.

As a lad grandad gave me a threpenny bit to see the bearded lady at the fairground, and for generations village panto's had men dressed as dames, and the principal boy played by a girl. The main discussion was whether the dame under the heavy make up was Sam the grocer or Bill the postman. And the sight of the school gym mistress bursting out of fishnet tights had us lads going more than anything revealed by the Polish entry.