Sunday, January 13, 2008

Idiot American That I Am, I Always Thought It Was Pronounced GANG-GUS

I know. I know. It's been awhile. Again.

We lost our wireless router during the big storm on Christmas Eve, and it's taken us this long to get it sorted out.

I'm celebrating my return by trying something new. The video below is of the dance number that EM performed at her big show last week. The quality is terrible. It gets a bit better, then it gets a whole lot worse, then it gets a bit better again before it gets even worse. Sorry about that. I was taking it with my little Pentax point n' shoot, and I don't think it was meant to record video from such distances. Oh hey, but at least the awfulness of the music comes through loud and clear. Dschinghis Khan by none other than Dschinghis Khan ca. 1980.

What's that you say? Never heard of it? Not big fans of the Grand Prix Eurovision song contest then, I take it. Jilly Baby will disagree, but I say you're all a whole lot better off for your ignorance. A good 80% of the recital highlighted Eurovision contest winners and popular losers from the past 30 years or so, and oh God but was it ever a chore to endure. This Dschinghis Khan number is very much representative of the level of pop horror I'm talking about. And Waterloo by ABBA--that one also came out of the Eurovision franchise as well.

Anyway--I'm too lazy to bother with any editing. So just ignore the first group of dancers, go delete some spam or something. You'll need to start paying attention again about a minute and a half into the song. Keep you eye on the crouching figure to the far right. That's EM, and she's every bit as brilliant as you'd expect her to be. Pay particular attention to the emphatic umph of her kicks about half way through there. She told me she was pretending to be a boy. That's why it looked so real and interesting, she said.

EDIT: Having just reviewed the video as it's posted, I see that it's even more impossible to see than it is with a full screen. Sorry about that. Oh well, enjoy the music anway.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oohhhh, I love it when you try something new. It looks like a fairly professional show. Wish I could've been there. I'll bet she was so proud. Did you need a zoom lens or a better seat? It looks like you're miles away from the stage. You're gonna have to change that routine if you're going to be any kind of stage mother at all.

Sorry to hear Amanda's been sick. Glad to hear she's better. I'm still hacking like I have a 2-pk a day habit.

And BTW, the really like the music. Good strong tribal beat -- made me want to dance a little myself.

Jilly Baby said...

Oh JEDA and I thought you were one of the few americans that actually understood irony, seems I was mistaken.

The Eurovision Song Contest is the most hillarious piece of political shit on TV and it makes for compulsive viewing although to be honest I only watch it for Terry Wogan's commentary (look him up).

It goes like this...Norway votes for Sweden, Sweden votes for Norway, Greece votes for Cyprus, Cyprus votes for Greece, and now that all the small Eastern European countries are in, they all vote for each other. And, sadly no-one votes for the United Kingdom because they all HATE us. The worst was the year we (and the US) invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. We finished with 0 points at all. Utterly laughable.

The only reason we're in it every year is because we're one of the biggest financial sources of the contest and therefore are exempt from the pre-contest knock-out heats!

And as for EM, awwww bless her. So they did get round to learning a dance routine of sorts after all. What a star!

JEDA said...

Oh Jilly, I'm not an idiot. Stop talking to me like I'm one...Unless, of course, you were taking the time to explain the voting process to my less informed family. In which case, thanks. Doesn't make the music any better though, and see, it was the music I was trashing...without irony.

Whether or not you actually like the music, was (and still is) somewhat murky in my mind (you've made dubious choices in the past, you see). But I knew you were a fan of the show. I even knew it was because of the commentary. I DO listen to you when you speak, you know Jilly. GEEZ!

Say what you will about geo-politcal satire, but year after year the music that comes out of that show is consitantly shitty, and I still wonder what on Earth those dance instructors were thinking when they organized an entire recital around it.

Of course, just before they broke up for Christmas, I heard the dulcet sounds of Michael Jackson's Thriller coming through the walls of the studio, so clearly their musical tastes across the board are suspect. At least as suspect as YOURS!