Comments on: Eurovision Excitement Mounts

By: Patchen

Patchen — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:55:49 +0000

And it was worth every wincing second.

By: Ben Saunders

Ben Saunders — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:39:10 +0000

Patchen: Yes, you must (seconded).

Dan really should write a book about this sort of stuff or something…

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:07:23 +0000

Patchen: yes, you must.

Dan: thanks for that, very - authoritative.

By: Patchen

Patchen — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:01:37 +0000

I got Josephine to explain the Eurovision song contest to me this evening, and this makes MUCH more sense than it would have an hour ago. Not totally transparent, mind you, but I’m getting there.

Apparently I must now go put “My Lovely Horse Eurovision” into the youtube search engine.

By: Dan Butt

Dan Butt — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:08:58 +0000

I’d love to pin it on Ruth Kelly too, but it’s tricky. In my view, to have a contemporary rectificatory duty, one needs either to a) be benefiting from historic injustice, b) be in possession of property historically misappropriated, or c) be a member of a community responsible for an ongoing failure to rectify injustice. If we assume that Ruth Kelly doesn’t have the ‘68 trophy stashed under her bed in Bolton West, then a contemporary claim would have to come under (c). And for the right identity conditions to be satisfied, Opus Dei would have to be some kind of sinister, elitist, holy-grail-stealing international crypto-fascist sect, as opposed to a rather charming aspirational movement encouraging sanctity in everyday life and kindness to animals.

I’m a bit worried about rectifying musical injustices. Even if we manage to get God Save the Queen to number 1, there’s a danger someone will try to take the 1999 Best Newcomers Brit away from Belle & Sebastian and give it to Steps.

By: chris y

chris y — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:03:03 +0000

I don’t see why Chris shouldn’t blame Ruth Kelly if he wants to. Blaming Ruth Kelly for things is good for the soul.

Can anybody remember what was the outcome when the writers of the Spanish song (La la la) on that occasion and the Kinks sued each other for plagiarising the tune (In the Kinks’ case is was used for a sub-standard “Dave Davis solo” outing called “Death of a Clown)? If the Kinks were deemed to have written it first, do they share responsibility for Sir Cliff’s misfortune?

By: ejh

ejh — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:30:10 +0000

Yes, but all global conspiracies have a remote HQ. I wonder if nowadays Dr No would have a web page?

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:41:56 +0000

Opus Dei has a local team? I thought it was a global conspiracy.

By: ejh

ejh — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:40:52 +0000

Opus Dei’s local side Barbastro are in the play-offs: I wonder if they can fix it for them to get promotion?

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:14:57 +0000

I think this is really a question for Dan. He’s the expert.