Eurovision Song Contest 1973

In order to persuade anyone that any kind of institutionalized event is a bad idea, all one needs to do is say “imagine x run by the DMV”. The Eurovision song contest is what it would be like if the music industry were run by the DMV.

To commemorate Eurovision’s biggest winners, the Irish, who have just blown the European Union treaty and the last time oil buggered up the global economy, here is the 1973 Eurovision song contest, held in Luxembourg – which is a bit like a country run by the DMV.

Following the terrorist attack against Israel at the Munich Olympics, and Israel’s debut in the competition, the floor manager strongly advised people in the audience to remain seated while clapping, to avoid being shot by security forces.

Belgium’s entry at 8:15 is pretty special, and if you have a history of hallucinogenic flashbacks, I’ve no idea what’s going on at 1:05, but you might not want to watch it. Beyond satire.

9 comments comedy, music, nostalgia, world

The Story of Abba – in Swedish

The fact that this is in Swedish (a language which I cannot understand) makes this absolutely perfect. Its like having the Muppet chef narrate it, I can make up all sorts of inappropriate things that I can imagine him saying. For the world’s most impossibly white band they were unbelievably good.

1 comment music, nostalgia

Foie Gras

As the ban is lifted on Foie Gras, a piece in the New York Times points to two videos: tabloid enfant-terrible light, Anthony Bourdain (is it just me, or are celebrity chefs this decade’s equivalent of the equally vacuous, contrived fame of the Super Models of the previous one), who claims mock disbelief that “fanatical stealth vegan extremists believe that the force feeding of ducks to plump their livers is actually cruel”. vs a fake promotional ad for French foie gras produced by an animal welfare group. I’ll post them alongside each other, so you can hit play at the same time, on both.

1 comment society

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

An exhaustive and information rich series of documentaries made in 1992 when oil prices were low enough for a level headed look at the history of oil. Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning book, of the available documentaries on the subject, this is the one to blow the dust off and insert into the virtual VCR.

Part 1, running time: 50 mins.

3 comments history, series

Commanding Heights

A mammoth 3 part series on the globalization of the world economy, made by two Frontline veterans Greg Barker and William Cran. This is an example of a great documentary that has the same instinctive appeal as conspiracy theorist nonsense like Zeitgeist. In which case, Commanding Heights is possibly a perfect vaccination against such viruses of the mind. Perfect, healthy, brain crack.

Part 1 here: 115 mins.

7 comments politics, series, world

The Death of Yugoslavia

This is the first part of six in a documentary series about the Yugoslav War. Made in 1995, the year that Bosnian-Serb General Mladic’s troops marched 8,300 Bosnian men and teenage boys out of Srebrenica, and executed them, some burned alive and tortured. Armed UN Peace Keeping soldiers watched them pass.
Despite the demands that Serbia should turn over Mladic as a precursor for eventual entry into the European Union (token efforts at complying including a 1M euro reward, were made by the Serbian government), in 2008 the ratification process was started anyway, although nobody seems to know the status and Kosovo’s independence has flared up bestial Serbian nationalism again. The whole story is making a farce of the EU.
There has been some criticism about the accuracy of translation, however, this series would be in my list of top ten documentaries of all time, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It unravels the mechanism of the sordid path of human conflict, from nationalism to genocide, like no other film before or since. It is the film that was never made about the holocaust.

Wikipedia entry.

Running time: 50 mins.

6 comments history, world

Japanese Science Fiction

Made in the style of “Eurotrash”, the Japanorama series is always great fun.

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Hoover Dam

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Ruby Ridge

A film about conspiracy theorists rather than a conspiracy theory film. Ruby Ridge is about the infamous anti-government family that holed themselves up at Ruby Ridge in a stand off with the Feds. What I like about this film is how it shows a particular overlap of societal influences that create a particularly American flavor of politics that doesn’t fit categories found elsewhere, having facets of both the liberal counter-culture and right wing conservatism.

Interviewed now, the Ruby Ridge family look like rural American conservatives, the father is interviewed in a diner full of Stetsons and cigarette smoke and the sweet natured, feminine looking, daughter speaks to us from a field, while firing off rounds from a twelve bore. This is Doris Day’s Calamity Jane rather than Jane Fonda.

In America, conspiracy theorists tend to be pro-gun, anti-government and anti-socialism. Rejection of government is ironically coupled by embracing certain cultural traits which are a result of the history of the American government, such as enshrined justification of armed protection of personal territory and fear of communism. In Europe the situation is the opposite, the rejection of the ruling class due to the exploitation of ordinary people as cannon fodder in WWI and the evils of extreme right wing government in WWII mean that people tend to view a socialist welfare state as sacrosanct, and weapons with suspicion.

In the 1930s, large scale economic chaos created the environment for the paranoia of the few to spread into the mainstream, in places like Germany. If America were ever in danger of suffering the same fate, its inner demons could be the same as those that are currently manifested in a tiny minority of paranoid people. In fact, the natural amplification of primal instinct on the web, means that conspiracy theorist nonsense has a worryingly large audience. The film Zeitgeist, has a larger audience than 60 minutes, it is the equivalent of Mein Kampf for the YouTube generation. Since rejection of society is amplified by the size of the country and the distance from people making decisions about their lives (creating a demonization of Federal over State taxes, for example), any kind of mass hysteria in the US is likely to take the form of libertarianism. .

There is a lot to learn about the people from Ruby Ridge, they are people who represent what can happen when the intrinsic, inner psychological fears of a society are amplified.

2 comments society

Television Delivers People – Richard Serra

Celebrated artist, Richard Serra’s sweet little piss-take of TV as being pernicious not because it isn’t active, but because it isn’t even passive – it consumes you. Complete with brainless test card music.

Thanks: Dan Westlake

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