Eurotrash

OK, OK, I have to admit it. I'm a Euroweenie. I love the Eurovision song contest! For sheer humor and outrageousness, there's nothing to beat it. I never get the voting quite right (I thought our entry would never do as well as it did--Shiri Maimon's English teachers ought to be very proud of themselves), but how can you beat silly costumes (times three, when you count in the videos and the semi-finals), the ridiculous accents, the cheesy choreography, and the laughable songs? It's three hours of the best comedy on TV.

This year was all about ethno-pop. I thought the Moldavian song did it best; I want to be Gramnda Boonika when I grow up (I already have the head scarf. Or, as we said last night--"Hey, look, it's Daniella Weiss's mother on stage!") I was sure the Swiss song would win; I'm still humming it. Norway's song was great as long as you kept your eyes closed and didn't have to look at WigWam's glam-rock costumes. Spain looked like they were doing a TV commercial for a pasta company. The FYR Macedonia (can't they come up with a shorter name?) song is much better than the video would have you believe; it's amazing how distracting costumes which have been run through paper shredders can be. And the Croatian song is not half as good as the clip. Too bad they couldn't get bell jars on stage. Andorra -- the less said the better. And it's a good thing the UK has to do the semi-finals next year.

The strangest twist of fate: Israel always scream "politics" and "anti-Semitism" when we don't do very well. Since we came in fourth, I was wondering how we would scream it this year, but Europe found a way. The French singer, all the way down near the bottom of the chart, is Israeli!

All the Eurovision needs to make it complete? Simon.

Quote of the day from my 17 year old son, before he went back to the dorms this morning: "You must be a bird, Mama?"
"Why?"
"Because you fly so much." (accompanied by wicked 17 year old snickers).