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Dec. 15th, 2009 @ 11:16 am Missed opportunities - #23 in a series where even Tuesdays can feel like Tuesdays!
So I've been looking back over the weeks to see where I ought to go next, and lawksalawdy but I haven't paid Norway a visit yet. Our gracious hosts for next May that are going to be feeding us with the sights and the sounds and the cakes and the local equivalent of Red Bull - and I've been ignoring them. It's shocking.

I'm in two minds about what NRK should offer us as the opening morsel, the introductory act, for the big night on Saturday May the twenty-somethingth of May, nineteen-two-thousand-and-ten. I'm torn between Rybak's 13 Horses, or a joyous revisiting of this enjoyable and slightly ridiculous little ditty from 2003:

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[info]nick_at_esc, posting in [info]oneurope_live
Dec. 14th, 2009 @ 11:19 am Missed opportunities - #22 in a series with good news and bad news, but possibly not in that order
The 2010 on-season is starting to roll into shore, like a tidal wave of music destroying all the carefully crafted castles of opportunistic sand and burying them under a thick layer of tuneless flotsam and jetsam and waveson. There will be nuggets of missed opportunity in the piles of stinking seaweed, crude oil and pan-European rotting fish, no doubt - but Missed Opportunities will be taking a rest in the new year and handing over control of the blog to the brand new search for our Oslo Superstar, before returning refreshed in the summer.

We're not going without a fight though, and missed opportunities will be popping up like shining stars in the storm at random times right up to the 31st of December. In a nutshell, anyday could be a Tuesday!

We begin our final hurrah with a brief hotel stayover in Vienna (or possibly Salzburg) in 2005, in which that blimmin' idiot Alf Poier has literally no idea of the utter lunatic brilliance he creates when he's not trying very hard.

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[info]nick_at_esc, posting in [info]oneurope_live
Dec. 8th, 2009 @ 07:44 pm Missed opportunities - #21 in a series that's been eating toasted cheese for supper lately.
With reference to the previous two missed opportunities, I'd just like to make clear that it is still Christmas, and will be for some time to come. Therefore, this week we're heading off to Cyprus, the year-round island, for a song that's redolent of cold nights in front of a blazing fire. It's by Alex Panayi and Marlain, and remarkably it's good. Sorry, I mean it's remarkably good. Damned English word-order thingy...

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[info]nick_at_esc, posting in [info]oneurope_live
Dec. 8th, 2009 @ 07:00 am Quiz Is Finished
Current Music: Skagos - Blossoms Will Sprout From the Carcass | Powered by Last.fm
For some reason, I couldn't shake the mental image of Meltem and Korhan (hosts for Istanbul 04) when doing my "Eurovision Quiz" over the weekend. Korhan's "surprised" response of "Ire-land!" on being told that they'd won more ESCs than anyone else is a bit of a catchphrase around my way.

Anyway, the answers to the lyrics quiz:
1. "The archipelagic icicles have melted like the cage"
Dervish - "They Can't Stop The Spring" - Ireland 2007

2. "'Aja ja ja ja' complained the song thrush, 'the song thrush's feet are freezing'"
Aistė - "Strazdas" - Lithuania 1999

3. "My radar is in panic. Fatal beauty admit it's weird"
Plastic Bertrand - "Amour Amour" - Luxembourg 1987

4. "Yes, that's what happens to someone who grows masculine too quickly"
Brita Borg - "Augustin" - Sweden 1959

5. "I wanted to find your footprints under your feet"
Antonio Carbonell - "¡Ay, qué deseo!" - Spain 1996

6. "The pillow smells nice but your infidelity is hurting me"
Tony Cetinski - "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva" - Croatia 1994

7. "Even the most expensive car can't swim and when it's wet it has trouble braking. That's why something is done to the asphalt - so that no drop of water remains on it"
Ruth Jacott - "Vrede" - Netherlands 1993

8. "Send for some vodka ho ho ho ho because we are Mongolians"
Dschinghis Khan - "Dschinghis Khan" - Germany 1979

9. "Susanne went home yesterday, home to her mother in Klampenborg, all that TV has made her raving mad. She says I'm not all normal"
Brixx - "Video Video" - Denmark 1982

10. "There is only one thing that does help. Someone must grease it once in a while"
Lys Assia - "Das alte Karussell" - Switzerland (listed as Germany in my program, weirdly) 1956
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[info]kapitankraut, posting in [info]eurovision
Dec. 5th, 2009 @ 07:45 pm Eurovision Quiz
I've just been to see "Eurobeat", a sort of Eurovision parody, and can't recommend it highly enough if anyone here has the chance to see it. Particularly when you're a bit starved for the real thing, this is quite a good substitute.

Anyway, the programme contains a brief quiz. Here are 10 lyrics from Eurovision entries, and your job is to name the performer, country, year and title. The lyrics are present in their English translations if they were performed in a different language. No googling or use of Diggiloo and related sites:

1. The archipelagic icicles have melted like the cage
2. "Aja ja ja ja" complained the song thrush, "the song thrush's feet are freezing"
3. My radar is in panic. Fatal beauty admit it's weird
4. Yes, that's what happens to someone who grows masculine too quickly
5. I wanted to find your footprints under your feet
6. The pillow smells nice but your infidelity is hurting me
7. Even the most expensive car can't swim and when it's wet it has trouble breaking. That's why something is done to the asphalt - so that no drop of water remains on it
8. Send for some vodka ho ho ho ho because we are Mongolians
9. Susanne went home yesterday, to her mother in Klampenborg, all that TV has made her raving mad. She says I'm not all normal
10. There is only one thing that does help. Someone must grease it once in a while

Answers on Monday evening Australian time, unless people want longer.
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[info]kapitankraut, posting in [info]eurovision