Germany musically relevant outside of death metal

I really like this song, so it's a huge surprise it won Eurovision, and it's German as well! When I heard this song I was convinced it was by one of those mockney songstresses the British Music industry flooded the mainland with 2004-2008, but no. As you can imagine, this didn't sound so good live, but as a pop single it's infectiously fun. The exquisitely mannered way it's sung is perfect for the choppy production, and who cares if it's clearly sung by someone who thinks they're a much better singer than they are, that happens to be utterly charming in this case. I'm almost sorry I didn't watch Eurovision, but who wants to sit through 4 hours of 80% shit if you have something better to do? Germany is delighted of course, and is responsible for the gaga-esque view count on the video. For extra fun, check out the comments where sore loser Slavic peoples are loudly calling for bombing raids on each others' countries.

Alejandro video controversial!

Well, there it is. The only connection to the Spanish title is the juxtaposition of fascist and catholic elements, both of which aren't really spectacularly well done in this case. The only interesting element of the general choreography are the 'monks' and their gay/sm dancing. Gaga's outfits are considerably less interesting. That latex nun outfit makes me think of a sex in the 90's kind of documentary less than anything groundbreaking. Gaga's eyebrows are gone again, but what it signifies this time? I just know I don't like it. In general, I found this video to be sort of boring compared to the last few. Oh, and Katy Perry apparently thinks it's sacrilegious, unlike her video for California girls which doesn't exist, but judging by a song where she tries to sound like Miley Cyrus, is probably going to be a derivative, dayglo nadir of banality featuring Snoop Dogg:

Dutch elections most exciting in years, to no avail.

Surprisingly low turnouts for the 6th election in ten years, the same bizarre swings as protest votes went form the left to new viable options on the right. Controversial politician Geert Wilders has tripled the number of seats and is now the country's third largest, getting most of the votes of the heavily wounded christian democrats, proving that Jesus hates Muslims too, even though they're fellow Semites. There may be a right wing coalition, where it not for the fact that none of the parties in that coalition really want to work together, or have all that much in common. The left has most of the other half of parliament, but is divided into four relative large, and another 5 small parties. Absurd rainbow coalitions aside, some kind of right-left combination is most likely and indeed, most desirable. On the off chance that the right wing coalition does work, we'll be treated to hilarious scandal after scandal, then we'll just have to have another election in six months or so, at which point a left wing government will probably be formed, which might just finish it's fucking term. If some parties don't start fusing together, we'll need a fucking military dictatorship to run the country.

What's with all the quirky female singers

I missed this one, because it's from Germany. But anyway, what's her deal? That's not how I remembered 1994, and also kind of weird to hear someone in pop admit to having been a teenager when the current crop of teenagers were born.



Or this one? Denmark.

There just seems to be a new standard pattern for all female artists and it's this. Quirky videos with weird outfits, regardless of your music. I'm not saying I'm against it, it's just creeping me out that there's this concerted effort going on to standardise uniqueness. Don't they realise there's no such thing as middle of the road weird? You have to take the chance to genuinely alienate your audience and even then they might just shrug. This creepy puppet video has the right idea:

Avengers movie third in line...

Marvel is planning something weird and wonderful, if you hadn't heard. Spiderman, the x-men and the fantastic four are all stuck with other studios, so they have to use their other super team. Unfortunately, this team is made up of individual super heroes that all sort of deserve their own movie. But Marvel is trying to create a consistent 'movie version' of their comic universe, evidenced by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in all projects (except the 'regular' comic universe, where he's still white) since the Hulk 2. Now that Jon Favreau has shown exactly how to make a cool, efficient and structurally solid comic book movie, that template can be used again and again. Iron Man 2 is a great example of what Thor and Captain America will be like. Nothing spectacular, just solid, straightforward action. The big problem is that they won't have Robert Downey Jr., who had as much to do with the success of those movies as Favreau. Instead, we're going have to watch some generic attractive men do it, and less than perfect directors. Kenneth Branagh for Thor, because of the Shakespearean dialogue and Joe Johnston for Captain America, presumably because the movie will be about his 1940's origin. Johnston directed the excellent the Rocketeer, but also Jumanji, which would bode ill. Both Films have to recoup 100 million plus budgets and lead in to a probably even more expensive Avengers team up film, but just imagine if it works. DC has been much more cautious with properties that aren't Batman or Superman, but they are making a green lantern film with Van Wilder as the titular hero. They'd just have to reboot Superman, or save costs and use Brian Singer's gay version - the sensible choice if Batman has to be Christian Bale, and maybe make a wonder woman movie to get just about every character for a Justice league movie. Don't fuck this up, Hollywood...