Ghost of a flea: Grotesque ethnic genre

? Courtney Love: Mono | Main | The Law of the Blogger ?

February 15, 2005

Grotesque ethnic genre

"Peace in the world. Peace in the country." Or something like that. While I am not certain Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had international song contests in mind I am positive that anyone looking for an extra hit of Europop will find it here as Tiscali links to the finale of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Yes, it is almost a year now but news travels slowly to these northern wastes.

Welcome to our special microsite for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, the world-famous, ultra-fun, uber-kitsch Pan-Europe song competition set this year in Turkey.

The entries from Malta and Belgium were classic Eurovision as was Deen (aka Faud Backovic) from Bosnia-Hercegovina with "In The Disco". But the Ukraine... ahh... the Ukraine. For some reason "Wild Dances" by Ruslana Lyzhicko reminded me of someone... take this blurb for her "Kolomijka" video, for example.

�Kolomijka� is the first work of Ruslana in grotesque ethnic genre. This time all the impressive production is combined with comic style and pure eclecticism. �A �dull-witted� group working on music video �Kolomijka� comes to distant hucul village to set up a casting for actors and musicians the whole village is gathered in the local club to show their best.

The hearts of the show business sharks are captured by a modest and tender �daughter of the mountains�. The following is just like in all the Hollywood fairy tales with amazing transformations, fights and �happy end�, with the only difference that the whole story happens not in the hills of Los Angeles but in the Carpathian Mountains. This little detail will be a big nice surprise for the audience�.

So... ethnographic! Those without the patience (or three hours to kill) sitting through the whole broadcast will find "Wild Dances" at about 44 minutes in just after Albania. Now if only we could figure out how to get Agnetha (i.e. Agnetha �se F�ltskog) to say yes to an Abba reunion for Eurovision 2005.

And then...Oh why do I bother? Beautiful Atrocities was all over the Ruslana story, like, fully months ago. I suck.

On salo, Ukrainian chocolate-covered pork-fat: "I love it as it's unusual. I was given the first serving of Lviv's chocolate salo. Perhaps they were testing my bravery, but I ate it & I'm still alive!"

Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 15, 2005 05:56 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/cgi-bin/mt/trackback-engine.cgi/2891

Comments

Whaddya mean, reunion... didn't they do enough pop culture damage the first time around? =P I still drink to forget that never-ending "Mamma Mia!" show.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at February 15, 2005 08:44 AM

You can count yourself lucky that I have (thusfar) not repeated my rant about "Fernando". One of my colleagues was subjected to my Abba, Bataille and the failure of revolutionary ideology speech a few weeks ago. Some drinking had been done...

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at February 15, 2005 10:30 AM

Well now you'll have to share it. "Fernando" is one of the few ABBA songs I can stomach. I know it's chock-full of hackneyed revolutionary sentiment, but it has some saving graces. It's not about giddy star-crossed new relationships, nor the synthetic heartbreak of failing relationships pushed to the edge by the jet-setting disco-star lifestyle -- in other words it stands alone from just about every other ABBA song.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at February 15, 2005 12:05 PM

It might take some Auchentoshen for my Fernando analysis to re-emerge from the depths. I think Eagle is a nice, epic tune too (though more Nietzche than Bataille).

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at February 15, 2005 09:19 PM