Project 289 - Day 61 (Sunday 17 May, 2009) : Fire, Wailing Women, Violins and Cherubic Norwegian Men...OH MY!

In the modest strident declaration yet that I am a great big screaming queen (the hat alone should give that away anyway! LOL) , I hosted, along with my beautiful friend, Kerry (below, all the way from BrizVegas who was a whiz with making up jelly shots and platting Russian-coloured streamers), and my gorgeous guy (see the third photo down - I couldn't have done it without him!), a fabulous, all Russian coloured and themed Eurovision party.


Naturally we over catered - I am my mother's on well and truly!! LOL - but I would rather do that and have lots of food that be accused of not knowing where the supermarket, deli and liquor store are! (Trust me, I know their locations well!!) So we had lots of cheeses, dips, antipasto etc for entrees, beef stroganoff, cheese-topped baked potatoes (thanks Ian and Ingo!), rice, salt & pepper crumbed calamari (thanks Waz - they were delicious!!), followed by lots of cake, slices, biscuits, and ice cream for dessert (thanks Stephen, Fahmi, Luke and Justin!).

In between this vast caloric intake, which all but ensures that I won't fit into the sprayed-on silver pants worn by the German entry any time soon (!), we watched with delight as Europe once again turned on the kitsch and the delightfully, joyfully tacky in one glitter-filled OTT night! We marvelled at the sheer beauty of the French entry, the tightness of costumes worn by the German and Greek contestants (all of whom seemed totally straight! LOL), or the complete lack (almost) of costumes worn by the studly men of Ukraine's entry. We also wondered if the young man who won for Norway was allowed out by his mother at all - he looked very young!

The themes this year seemed to be, in no particular order, fire, wailing women in white, violins, men in tight pants, blue background lighting (thank god for Portugal who went all colour!!), electro folk rock and in one case a weird man in a blue suit who seemed to spend the entire performance groping the young female singer in a very Jerry Spring-esque way! Of course, there were the usual suspects - cheesy music, overwrought, intense 'serious' singing and oddly-rhymed English lyrics but I wouldn't have it any other way! After all if it wasn't replete with all the wacky eccentricities it possesses then what would be the point of watching? We love it all kitsch, odd and strange!

(Above - PHOTO 1 back row to front : Justin, Waz and Stephen enjoy the bizarre Eurovision universe that makes Alice in Wonderland look like boring day to day reality! / PHOTO 2 : Waz, me and Ian - just missing Peter who was away soaking up the sun in Nth Qld! Or possibly the torrential rain?)

Of course a night of Eurovision would not be complete without the extended thrill of the voting round where we switch between 42 countries and their national media reps eager for their 15 seconds in the pan European sun. Some of them are so enamoured with the thrill of being outside of their home markets that they wax lyrical about the supreme wonder that was the just concluded show, leer suggestively one or the other of the hosts (or both!!), or sing the results (like the Swedish lady did below). Clearly she was disappointed that La Voix got in to represent Sweden, and she didn't! Thankfully they no longer assign all the points onscreen, and only 8, 10 & 12 points are now announced, shortening the whole process considerably! Which is just as well, as much as I like Eurovision, there is only so much media posturing and preening that I can take, even with the joy of Eurovision pulsing through my veins!!!

And the winner? I loved Norway - yes the lyrics were slightly odd but the tune was jaunty, the smile vibrant, and the guy was so amazingly cute!! Not as cute as my gorgeous guy naturally but cute nonetheless and he seemed so thrilled to have won that who could begrudge him?

So next year we may be heading to Norway next year! If not, my gorgoeus guy need to get his Norwegian flags ready to go and given the colours of Norway we can just recycle the rest of the decorations! As if we will....