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Eurovision 101: An Introduction |
The Eurovision Song Contest has been around for over 60 years, but Eurovision in New Zealand is still covered in a veil of mystery. Here’s a quick guide to the biggest music competition in the world — a guilty pleasure for some, a reason to get up at 7AM for others. |
Eurovision 101 |
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual singing competition among members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each country submits a song to be performed live on television and then votes for other countries’ songs to determine the most popular tune. Started in 1956, it was originally set up as a way to bring th... |
Entering Eurovision |
Qualification for Eurovision is determined by two semi-finals, since there are now more countries that wish to participate than there is time to air every performance. However, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain have qualified for the final automatically every year since 2000 as the “Big Four.” Italy was co... |
Performing at Eurovision |
All vocals must be performed live. No promoting brands (The Facebook Song was changed to The Social Network Song in 2012). No overly political statements, gestures or swearing on stage or in any Eurovision-related area including media centre and backstage. Songs cannot be longer than three minutes. A maximum of six peo... |
Voting in Eurovision |
Voting is complex and is split equally between each country’s “professional jury” (a panel of industry figures nominated by each country to vote “professionally” on each entry) and the everyday voter, like you and me. Juries vote separately to the viewer at home who can vote by calling in, by sending a text or by using... |
In the final, the jury votes are presented by a representative from each country who is beamed into the broadcast live via satellite. Every country has 10 votes. Countries award 1 to 8 points and then 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs. The live crosses are often messy and are pretty much the best part of the wh... |
After the jury votes are announced, the hosts of the show will announce the total number of points awarded to each country from the televotes compiled from across Europe, beginning with the country or countries that received no points and moving all the way thru to the country that received the most. The idea is that t... |
There’s the potential for the dreaded nil points – nothing from televotes and nothing from the juries. With so many points on offer it’s a major feat to achieve 0, but it does happen. Keep an eye on the other end of the results table for some extra tension! |
Winning Eurovision |
The country that wins the competition hosts next year’s contest. (Often, countries incapable of financing the event sometimes send particularly ridiculous acts to Eurovision. so as to avoid winning but still be part of the show.) Next year, Eurovision will take place in Portugal, because this year’s winner Salvador Sob... |
Eurovision Success Stories |
Some acts got their start on Eurovision, others were established and used the event as a career move. ABBA, Sandie Shaw, Bucks Fizz, Celine Dion, Tatu, Gina G, Lulu, Conchita, Lordi, Brotherhood of Man, Katrina and the Waves, Bonnie Tyler, Englebert Humperdinck and Olivia Newton-John. Can you believe it? |
Ireland has won 7 times, Sweden 6 and Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom 5 times. |
Least successful countries: Nul points! Norway have come last 11 times, but have also won three times. |
Eurovision history is complex and convoluted, but the outcome is also fantastic and mind-bending. An introduction to Eurovision is met with raised eyebrows and confused stares, but once is never enough, and soon enough you’ll be part of a gaggle of fierce fans around the world. |
Gender Politics and Heavy Metal |
For many of us, it’s time to catch up with the times and wake up to certain facts about gender fluidity, the gender you are assigned at birth is not necessarily the one you identify as. This is nothing new for those of you who have engaged in recent history, and as the debate gains momentum and prominence in the dialog... |
However, rather than list a proposed set of masculine qualities, and a list of proposed common features amongst the myriad metal styles and their subsets, and then explain why the twain will always go hand in hand, I will simply state it as fact that metal has been unapologetically a genre for the masculine, one – ofte... |
So far, so one dimensional. For people already well versed in the myriad and varied selection of metal bands boasting female members, women have been a part of metal culture so natural over the years that their individual presence is deemed not worth noting, Bolt Thrower, Nuclear Death, Plasmatics, Funeras, Acid King, ... |
So now that we no longer live in the horrendous old days of rampant sexism and homophobia (modern takes on old prejudices granted), we have more fluid and enlightened notions of gender identity and how this relates to sexuality, and this means that people will inevitably start turning to subcultures like metal as an ex... |
Whilst all this may be true, it doesn’t have to cause the outrage that it does. Because men have dominated history at the expense and persecution of women, because heterosexual men have had a monopoly on male identity at the expense and persecution of all others, any celebration of a traditional notion of male identity... |
But to return to the point, and to contradict an earlier statement, take a generic list of traits that encompass all of metal, each and every subgenre, and a generic list of traits associated with the idea of masculinity, and they will marry up too often to be thought coincidental. The two are inextricably linked. Does... |
Rob Halford |
Now all this may be tediously obvious to some, but it serves to prepare the ground for the next stage of this meditation. Both in and outside the subject of gender identity in metal, there have been attempts to subvert the very core of this philosophy in the hope that it would bring metal up to speed with other subcult... |
The Soft Pink Truth |
Now at this point it is important to make a maybe subtle but sharp distinction. You may think that I am trying to say that there is a certain way for people at metal gigs, bars, festivals, for metal bands and record shop patrons, to carry themselves. If you don’t do so you will somehow be seen as ‘other’than those arou... |
Attempts to feminize metal because you find that it excludes on that basis is essentially an attempt to make it something which it is not. It is comparable to saying that you wish to change the amount of ball kicking there is in football because you find the current amount disagreeable. You could reinterpret the sport,... |
For better or worse, a key element of metal has always been and will always be a celebration of the masculine, sometimes diminished, sometimes in full view. Again, I feel the need to reiterate that this is not related to a code of conduct at gigs, clubs, bars and festivals, although they do all reflect this to a greate... |
Bolt Thrower |
I say these things in the full knowledge that this is far from a water tight defense of a subculture that has often and rightly been accused of sexism and homophobia. I do maintain that as time moves on however, such instances are becoming the exception not the rule, and one should not confuse a celebration of one thin... |
All this is conceded. But if you take the previous arguments as an address to people that complain of feeling excluded from metal on the grounds of its unapologetic masculinity, leaving little to no room for the effeminate, I would simply say…they started it. They have looked at metal, identified it as masculine, and s... |
Another preemption I wish to make is regarding that of acceptance. If you embody the effeminate, but also feel pulled to metal music in one form or another, then surely by the current definitions I have been taking liberties with, they are excluded, they can never be part of the ‘brotherhood of metal’ as it were, becau... |
Whether the following softens or harden you to my current line of reasoning is up to you, but I do wish to make clear that I have something of a personal reason for sketching out this brief framework. Being a person of analysis coupled with being nervous around others, I struggle to approach anything with conviction. E... |
So to bring together the loose ends of this discussion by way of blunt assertion, metal exhibits certain traits that make up its essence, these manifest themselves to a greater or lesser degree in each and every subgenre. Outsiders have identified a large number of these as being masculine traits, call them what you wi... |
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Friday, December 18, 2015 |
Call me when the force really awakens. Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
Sorry, that’s the best I can muster. Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn’t an awful movie, but it’s not a great one either. Read on, and I promise no spoilers. |
Haven’t I seen this somewhere before? |
A teenager on a desert world with a hard life who doesn’t fit in. An robot with a secret agenda. A reluctant hero. A masked villain with a mysterious past. A super weapon. No I’m not describing the original Star Wars. All those same elements are in this movie along with many other similarities. Star Wars was an iconic ... |
The surprises are disappointments. Kylo Ren’s real identity is revealed halfway through the movie. Enough hints were dropped so that if you had been paying attention, his relationship to other characters was obvious. The news arrives not with a gasp, but with a yawn. While we’re on the subject of Kylo Ren, there hasn’t... |
Kylo Ren stomps around the movie like a petulant schoolchild. Why aren’t I popular? Why don’t the cool kids like me? The rebellion has nothing to fear from him. Every time he throws another hissy fit (and he throws several) I imagine the storm troopers rolling their eyes beneath the masks and thinking, Oh crap, not aga... |
BB-8 was supposed to be the new R2-D2. Not even close. A good part of R2-D2’s charm was his relationship with C3PO. He nagged, C3PO protested. They argued, they made up. They were a metallic odd couple. The range of whistles and clicks had a funny, weird friendship dynamic missing from the movie. BB-8 is a cute little... |
Apparently, love doesn’t conquer all |
The end of the first trilogy left you with warm feelings about Han and Leia. Two people who needed each other found each other. Sure, the road ahead wasn’t easy. There were still dangers lurking, remnants of the Empire who wouldn’t play nice, but they had each other. They would face the trials together and triumph. |
Nice to know we were all wrong. Han and Leia are now grumpy Grammy and Gramps. There is no passion. This is no romance. They seem more like brother and sister. Kirk and Spock had more sexual chemistry in Abrams’ Star Trek movies than these two. Ford and Fisher are actors. Couldn’t they at least have acted as if they on... |
How to improve the series |
I’m so tired of all the heroes with daddy issues. This film, like so many other blockbusters, embraces father/son conflict, hoping to pull on the heartstrings. It doesn’t. All it gets from me is a Not again. Don’t they have any new ideas? The mantra in bloated budget movies seems to be if it worked the first five hundr... |
Why are the powers-that-be in Hollywood so afraid of a little warmth and romance? It won’t turn an action film into a bodice-ripping chick flick, but rather humanizes the characters. There can and should be a happily ever after for well-loved heroes and heroines in movies that are meant to be fun. It makes us all feel ... |
Pluses. Really? |
Yes there were a few. In particular, the new cast additions were excellent. Rey made a plucky heroine. Finn’s transition from storm trooper to reluctant hero added a nicely done twist. Poe Dameron’s pilot had a gritty appeal as a seasoned warrior. The story should have focused completely on them and their fight against... |
More to come. |
Maybe the second movie will improve. With a young cast this good there’s hope, but I won’t hold my breath. The first time I saw Star Wars, I was left with a triumphant feeling, and a desire to immediately watch the movie again. Not this time, I’m afraid. It was an okay movie with an okay plot that generated nothing mo... |
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Charecterizing Flavors |
Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes and Characterizing Flavors |
One of the most hotly-debated aspects of e-cigarettes is the multitude of flavors they’re available in. You see countless news stories discussing the implications of e-liquid flavors, in particular, looking at the idea that such flavors will attract teens and youth to vaping, hook them into lifelong nicotine addiction ... |
With the FDA’s draft deeming regulation of e-cigarettes having been released, vaping products are on the cusp of falling under federal regulations, with the final rule due in June this year. The initial draft didn’t propose any limitation on flavors, but it did request further evidence on them – a move which many saw a... |
Characterizing Flavors in Cigarettes |
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act established a rule for cigarettes, valid from late September 2009, banning the use of characterizing flavors in cigarettes or their components (including the tobacco, the filters and the paper). Characterizing flavors means any artificial or natural flavor other tha... |
This rule is for cigarettes, and the lack of a broad reference to all “tobacco products” (which e-cigarettes are being “deemed” as in the FDA’s proposed regulations) means that it won’t necessarily be broadened to include e-cigarettes, but the possibility is definitely there. |
For tobacco, the case against flavorings is laid out in an FDA fact sheet, arguing that flavored cigarettes are appealing to youth and may hook them into lifelong smoking. One referenced study found that almost 23 percent of 17-year old smokers had used flavored cigarettes in the past month, compared to under 7 percent... |
Couple this with leaked documents from tobacco companies – which often explicitly state that adding flavors to cigarettes is a strategy to get youths smoking – and you have the perfect storm: more than enough reason to think about seriously limiting flavored cigarettes. While not everyone may agree that it’s necessary ... |
Extending the Characterizing Flavor Ban to E-Cigarettes |
The case for extending the flavor ban to e-cigarettes is notably weaker, however. Firstly, the underlying principle behind such actions is the fundamental and undeniable danger associated with combusted tobacco use. E-cigarettes, in comparison, are undoubtedly much, much safer than cigarettes, and in fact, based on cur... |
This becomes even more difficult to justify when e-cigarettes’ role as reduced harm tobacco substitutes is considered. Despite concerns about youth e-cigarette use, the evidence to date strongly suggests that almost all regular users (and the vast majority of those who’d ever tried vaping) are (or were) smokers. Any co... |
Other research provides even more reason to question the logic of a ban on characterizing flavors in e-cigarettes. Firstly, studies show that e-cigarette flavors are very important to the success of e-cigarettes for adult users. Not only do they provide a benefit of e-cigarettes in comparison to tobacco cigarettes (the... |
The most directly relevant study directly asked youth and adults how appealing they found various e-cigarette flavors. The results were unanimous: teens really don’t care much about bubblegum flavored e-cigarettes or any of the other flavors commonly used as examples of e-cigarettes appealing to youth. They did appeal ... |
Despite all of this, you’ll have undoubtedly noticed that the exact same arguments are used against e-cigarette flavors as were used against tobacco cigarette flavors. State-level bans of characterizing flavors in e-cigarettes are increasingly being proposed, and it’s looking like something similar may be considered at... |
The lack of a clear rationale behind such a move is obvious to anybody who’s spent time looking at the research into e-cigarettes, but if we’ve learned anything from what’s happened with e-cigarettes so far, it’s that things like this proceed even without science to back them up. |
A Damaging Decision, But One We’re Ready For |
Banning characterizing flavors in e-cigarettes would leave only tobacco and menthol, impacting on many vapers and crippling the vast majority of e-liquid companies. Such a move would make it harder for smokers to quit through vaping, would remove one of the major benefits of vaping and would do so while providing no be... |
Here at Black Note, we don’t use any characterizing flavors anyway – our tobacco e-liquid is all based on natural tobacco extract flavors (with one menthol e-liquid) – We might be ready for whatever irrational regulatory decisions the future holds, but we stand firmly and resolutely against them. E-cigarettes need to b... |
Michael Grey |
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Michael Grey |
Michael Grey |
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• Average Joe American |
One of the most intelligent articles I’ve seen on this subject. |
Having been smoke free (after 45 years of combustible tobacco use) for over six years now, I view with growing horror the attempts by the US FDA and the various government- and donation-funded organizations (American Heart and Lung Association, American Cancer Society, et al) to restrict or outlaw a technology whic... |
When I see that a growing number of teenagers have “tried” e-cigs (along with coffee, alcohol, marijuana, pornography, and everything else they know adults do), I rejoice. If e-cigs had been available to me at the age of fourteen perhaps I wouldn’t have spent most of my life roller-coastering between Pall Malls, co... |
The notion that flavoring a tobacco product is somehow a new and frightening development in the world of nicotine addiction is historically absurd. In pre-colonial times tobacco was cured and blended with everything from molasses and sugar to chocolate, vanilla, coffee, spices, maple syrup, apples, cherries, whiske... |
As far as I’m concerned, kids can “experiment” all they like with e-cigs (including the no- and low-nicotine varieties so rarely mentioned). Judging by the number of teens who smoke and drink already, a large percentage of them are gong to try them anyway. Better electronic cigarettes than filching Camels from mom’... |
Defining e-cigarette use as a “gateway to smoking” or saying it simply “reinforces bad behavior” is like villifying decaf coffee drinkers or condemning a tea-totaller for sipping Virgin Marys in a bar. |
Or by “gateway to smoking” (like puffing pot leads to heroin addiction), do they mean that when they finally succeed in their concerted endeavors to severely restrict or outlaw vaping, people will turn to their only remaining nicotine puffing option: Big Tobacco (who, unlike electronic cigarette companies, help fun... |
In the end it’s not about flavor, folks. It’s about color. The color of money. |
What is E-Juice? |
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