Eurovision - my thoughts

It's over - finally - the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) that is. And those who still thought this was about the best song or the best singer will perhaps finally change their minds.

I feel sorry for France, Israel and Sweden, cause their singers were the best.

Israel - Eurovision Song Contest 2009 Semi Final 1 - BBC Three (Final Place 16th)

France made the 8th place and from what I read, this is the best French result in years and Patricia Kaas also attracted more viewers than before which is why France calls this year's participation a succes. The Swedish song took a different a different approach, but why not try something else when copying old songs (like some do) doesn't bring the expected success?
What I don't get are those disco beats and oompa oompa is not really my kind of music. So it will forever stay a mystery to me how Finland made it into the final and came in last, whereas Andorra did not (btw, the singer is originally from Denmark).

Eurovision 2009 Andorra - Susanne Georgi

or why didn't Ireland survive the semi-final?

Ireland: Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy - Et Cetera


It's a good sign for the quality of the entries that Iceland came in second.

Yohanna - Is It True (Iceland) (Final 2nd Place)

And did you take notice that most of the points where attributed to the first six entries? How do you define a middle field, when the ninth place was the last to get more than 100 points? In my eyes people saying that germany's result was better than last year didn't look at the points.

Honestly I don't care, what I care about is that Norway will host the next ESC, which is one of best news in years. And it doesn't hurt at all that Norway is one of Europe's gay-friendliest countries :-)

I kept the best song of the entire contest for the end, Estonia - the secret winners.

Sandra Nurmsalu & Urban Symphony - Rändajad Estonia (Final Place 6th)

Video of the Day: IDAHO 2009

The site organizing the IDAHO 2009 challenge suffered from a DDOS attack on Friday, which was a clear homophobic attack. Unfortunately they were not the only gay-site and I sincerely hope that all sites are back online again and that all of them have the means to find the culprits and file complaints against them.

International Day Against Homophobia (May 17th)

I have to admit, I ignored mentions about this for several weeks, just because it was about IDAHO, took me some time to understand that this was not about some state in the US, but simply an acronym.

The International Day Against Homophobia goes back to an idea of Louis-George Tin, today the president of ILGA's French section. May 17^th was chosen as the date to coordinate international activities against homophobia as it was on May 17^th, 1990, that WHO removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. What started in 2005 with only a small group of countries participating evolved into a day with activities in over 50 countries worldwide. For a full list of the countries and detailed description of the objectives of this day, please read the according ILGA document Taking Action!.

This year, in 2009, the name was changed to "International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia", though everybody keeps referring to IDAHO.

Following the lobby work of the Spanish national federation FEGLTB the Spanish Parliament asked the Government on May 5^th to officially recognize May 17^th as the "International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia" (hat tip @ ana)

Organizations offer or participate in a wide range of activities and this year's May 17^th being a Sunday will probably/hopefully attract even more participants. It's impossible to mention all of them, you don't even find an exhaustive list on the official page, so I'll just give you an overview on the diversity of events and actions.

Another great site is this Canadian one : http://www.homophobie.org, which also provides you with promotional banners

You probably all heard about the IDAHO Challenge, which asks you to create a video and submit with the site by May 10^th (eurOut reported).

If you're in or around Berlin that day, you might check out a rally and symposium organized by LSVD (German Lesbian and Gay Association) referring to their ongoing campaign to include lesbian and gay persons in the German constitution (eurOut reported).

Also in Berlin, you can participate in the "protect every kiss 2009" event

Some pride events coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, as e.g. in Blackpool or the Belgian Lesbian & Gay Pride in Bruxelles.

There are definitely many more events, are you participating in any these? What do you think of this idea?

This article was originally written for and published at eurOut.

photo blog: tough day for Maxi -

no comment ;)

My „no particular reason“ crush – Marie Labory

Marie Labory is a French TV journalist who has worked for ARTE Culture, hosting the shows alternating with Annette Gerlach for the last couple of years. The first time I saw on her tv I thought "well if she Is not a lesbian then I don't know who else is";)

Internet resources didn't deliver the expected results and trust me, normally I'm really good at digging. Ok I found out that she had worked for the gay channel pink tv, that was a hint but no proof. There's a certain type of women who appeal to the gay community and who therefore work for gay programs, events, magazines because they are successful at their jobs and not because of their sexual orientation.

Imagine my surprise and joy at finding an article on the French site têtu, confirming my hopes. Apparently she's been out forever :)

The article is about her being the only out female journalist and - here's the actuality angle - today's starting Festival de Cannes and how arte's daily show tries to be different from the others, e.g. Canal +. They're allocating the same space to all three sections of the festival, so we're going to learn more about the movies running at Un Certain Regard.
Looking forward to getting my daily movie dose presented by Marie Labory :-)

Official trailer at ARTE, looks like fun.

First guest will be Isabelle Huppert, president of this year's jury.

Love is gay

Love is gay? But what's the news in this? In this case, I took some liberties with translation. I don't know what was originally said respectively written, according to a German translation the Russian participant for the Eurovision Contest Anastasia Prikhodko
gave this as an answer in an email when asked about supporting Slavic Pride. The literal translation would have been "love is colorful" but "love is gay" fits so much better.

According to some fan blogs some of the participants are gay (I don't know who and if they are out) and no signs of support for Slavic Pride from them - except for Gordon, singer of the Dutch group, who said that he was going to boycott the show, if there would be aggressions against homosexual activists.

I have to take up the cudgels on behalf of Patricia Kaas whose answer to the question about her support for Slavic Pride was that she hadn't heard of that before, yet everyone should have the possibility to live their life.

It's not been that long that I came across the term Slavic Pride, until recently it had always been referred to Moscow Pride. Nikolai Alexeyev, founder of gayrussia.ru, has been trying to get official permission for a pride parade in Moscow for years now. Mayor Yury Luzhkov, an extreme homophobe, refused permission repeatedly, for various reasons. With international support Nikolai Alexeyev still organized unofficial pride parades, some of which you probably heard of in the media, e.g. police stood watching skinheads and other militants aggressing and attacking participants of the parade and ended up arresting participants of the parade.

This year though, they had hoped to be granted permission, as they scheduled the pride parade on the day of the
Eurovision Song Contest and the fear of international TV showing Russian police breaking up the parade would result in a positive decision.
Unfortunately Moscow's mayor doesn't care about this and after weeks of stalling and claiming that he never received a request for the parade he finally came around this weekend and officially prohibited the march. Reason: out of fear of the safety of the participants.
That's not only the most hypocritical reason I've ever heard, this is outrageous. This comes from the same man shouting "satanic" and worse whenever he has the occasion and also called in representatives of the church to help him fight against homosexuals including organizing an anti-demonstration on the same day.

Nikolai Alexeyev will still organize the march this Saturday, May 16^th, and as upset as I am about the mayor, I wonder as much if this is really a good idea. After all we're talking about disobeying in Russia, I'd be more than happy when proven wrong, but I fear that this year actions of the police will be even harder.

What do you think? Am I too pessimistic? Would you participate in this parade in Moscow?

This article was originally written for and published at eurOut.

Names – ever think about them?

 

Ever wondered what's in a name and what this might imply?

In Germany we have this thing called saint's day and in some families this day is given more attention than anniversaries.
Most of those saint's days go back to religious persons and there are complete books on that topic. If you're from a religious family you probably have a more traditional name, one that can be traced back to a saint.

I recently read that there is a wave of choosing more androgynous names like Luca or Lena though I don't see anything androgynous about either of them. Sure, normally a name ending on an "a" would lead to the assumption that you're dealing with a woman - unless you're facing an Italian name. Italian Luca's and Andrea's are always male. As for Lena (and who is not thinking of Lena Heady at this moment?) nothing modern and androgynous about this one, as it's short for Magdalena - very religious, very traditional and definitely very feminine.

Family names are a different matter, sometimes left open to speculation, e.g. I have at least three versions that really make sense as to where my family comes from. I prefer that version where it would mean "on fire".

And I'll leave you with that thought.

Random Stuff: Questions, food for thought?

This is not planned as part III to "boring and random stuff about me", these are questions I often wonder about, some are meant rhetorical, some are real questions.

1. Why do so many lesbian authors choose androgynous names for their characters? Or "male" nicknames? And why do they often pair blondes and brunettes? I can't believe that so much of lesbian fiction is alt- or uber Xena-fiction. (really don't know the difference between alt and uber, yet I'm sure that this is not fanfiction)
   
2. Is there really no base-line below which political elections will be cancelled? I can't believe that elections with 30% of attendance can still be valid. Sure, people who stayed at home will have to live with this, but still….
   
3. What is the point of having a non-smoking policy on trains but not at the stations?
   
4. If I stopped thinking for others for an entire day, e.g. on the road or avoiding run in with those little monsters at the supermarket, will I still be alive in the evening?
   
5. Why are most current lesbian plots on TV spoiled by one of them being pregnant, some sooner, some later?
   
6. E-books prices don't differ as much as I expected from "real" books. I hope that authors get a bigger deal from e-books as production costs are extremely lower.
   
7. I'm beginning to like facebook's "pick your 5" and wonder if there's a possibility to cross post them to my blog.
   
8. Dita von Teese is supporting the German Act at the Eurovision Song Contest? Seriously? I'm glad that my tv fees support Patricia Kaas ;)
   

54th Eurovision Song Contest (2009)

Should we take the results of this year's Eurovision as a prognosis for the EU-Elections? Just kidding ;)

I fear that the German result will not be much better than last year, though I could be proved wrong and that's not because of their scoop of adding Dita von Teese (for serious?) to their performance but because of a change in rules. The juries are back and points will become the decisions of the juries and of the votes called in by viewers. This in hope of avoiding another votes-cluttering of the eastern connection.

I'd say if this still does not help and Germany will still come up last, someone should seriously consider of pulling out of this event. After all, many events have been cancelled due to the economic situation and I hate the thought of four countries paying for the larger bulk of this event while somebody else is having a blast.

Anyways, I don't care as much about the German result as about the French result.

Patricia Kaas, did I mention that she's not only extremely attractive but also a great singer?

Many think that she doesn't stand a chance, just because she's coming from one of the big-sponsor countries. They're forgetting that Patricia Kaas has huge fanbase in Russia. That would be the greatest thing happening – Patricia Kaas winning with the help of her Russian fans. Totally giddy, I know, but still, just imagine…..

Just in case you didn't know, this will be next Saturday (May 16^th) and the semi-finals on May 12^th and May 14^th. Check the official website for details or the channel on YouTube to listen to your favorite songs.

You should also checkout eurOut, especially during the show on Saturday evening.

Random Thoughts: Things that drive me crazy

Normally I'm not that a person who's much into details, at least not at first glance. But there are some details, especially in tv-series that drive me crazy. Sometimes they irritate me that much, that I stop watching the show altogether. The irritation on SVU was that strong, that I already wrote an entire blog-post on that subject.

Currently I'm watching "La vie est à nous" on a regular basis (read the recaps on eurOut if you want to know more). Marianne looked great in the first episodes and had – compared to the other women appearing in that show – an unusual haircut. Lately she seems to be growing out her hair, a style hovering between boring and slightly ugly. To give the show some credit, it's not the only show doesn't seem to be able to be giving their actresses a decent hairdo.

Do you ever pay attention to what they are wearing in the shows? Sometimes the same outfit during the entire episode (e.g. some "Tatort"s), even when the storyline suggests the story spanning over several days. On a recent episode of CSI Las Vegas the team pulled an all-nighter (plus 24hrs) and none of them changed their clothes once, what do they have in their lockers if not a change of clothes?

I know, that I drive people crazy talking about this; they think that paying attention to these details is weakening the story-line, but hey, especially CSI stories are about details, so they should get them right too. If you don't want me to notice these things, have them wear overalls, or look over to NCIS where Gibbs is constantly drinking coffee, Abby getting her power-whatever-fix and they use non-see-through containers. I never wonder or count how much they've been drinking ;)

More boring and random stuff (also known as part II)

I barely had posted part I, that I already thought about facts I had missed, which is why I instantly started on part II. These points also trigger ideas for "normal" blogposts, which had been awfully scarce lately. Let's see with what I'll come up next.

1. Missing the "winners" gene, I don't play to win but to have fun, I've been known to give the craziest answers at trivial pursuit just to see the reaction of the rest of the group.
   
2. I'm not a very tidy person, but everything I do follows some hidden, extremely analytical agenda
   
3. When I recently made the switch from winter to summer shoes, I realized that I own more than 10 pairs of "good" summer shoes and not a single one of them is black.
   
4. My favorite reading and viewing genres are crime, mystery and sci-fi.
   
5. I can be extremely stubborn, which sometimes ends with me simply ignoring specific persons. Especially when they ended some argument by making a dramatic exit incl. slamming doors.
   
6. I do have a sensor for true emotions (that's perhaps the reason why I can't stand soaps) and have major issues with people, especially in professional life, who are clearly showing to which type of communication-skills-seminar they've (just) been.
   
7. Lived above a bakery when I was a wee child; until today the smell of fresh bread makes me feel at home.
   
8. I hate people who come to ask for my opinion and then try to persuade me that I'm wrong.
   
9. This also extends to colleagues who want to know how something should be done only to launch into an argument why this doesn't make sense. If they want to run head first into a wall, let them.
   
10. I'm allergic to dust and several fabrics.
    
11. I can be a real snob about food especially when it comes to brands.
    
12. Sometimes I think that I'm extremely accident prone. The run-in with the black elder seems to have left a scar on my arm.
    
13. Several weeks ago I set the kitchen on fire, a towel which was too close to the stove was the culprit
    
14. I can remember really weird or unnecessary facts, but it's also happened more than once that I couldn't remember why I had gone down to the basement. Or that I needed to make 3 trips until I had what I initially went for.
    
15. I can't take horror movies seriously; but movies about or with real animals often leave me upset.
    
16. Ice-cream is my favorite food, especially of the frozen yoghurt kind
    
17. I never do "stuff" just because everybody else is doing it.
    
18. I never leave house without my sunglasses but have forgotten everything from my jacket to closing the doors and windows
    
19. I love to observe thunderstorms.
    
20. I'm afraid of crowds
    
21. It's been proven on twitter that I'm completely unromantic, at least in ways that are commonly considered romantic. Please refer to # 17.
    
22. I care about words, language and correct pronunciation and some dialects make me physically sick. And though I don't really speak a dialect and also cannot place them geographically when hearing them, I understand most of them after listening for a couple of minutes, incl. most Swiss and Austrian dialects, and to some extent Dutch.
    
23. I talk to my pets, always ask them how their day was and if they slept well.
    
24. Went to Malta and Iceland in the same year, Malta in August and Iceland in December and always wished it had been the other way round.
    
25. Spent last Sunday re-watching the latest 5 episodes of Bones for the 3^rd time
    

Exploring random facts

Before posting more random, boring facts about me, a post which is already finished, I’ve got something else I need to get out of my head.

I’ve always been a “daddy’s girl”, I’ve got no idea why and there’s no one left in the family with whom I’ll discuss this. Next to being a “daddy’s girl” I also was a “grandpa’s girl”, and there’s nothing wrong with neither of this, I had a lot of fun with both of them.

Most of my pre-teen summer vacations where spend at my grandparents, and with my parents being an hour of a car drive away this meant pure freedom. Most of the family lived in the same city where my grandparents lived, which meant visiting a lot of aunts and uncles. That family had a weird generation gap, at least on my grandma’s side but the youngest were still about 8 years older than me, which is an aeon when you’re only 7.

One of the things I clearly remember is the basement at my grandparents, or more precisely the space allocated to them, as they lived in a house with 3 other families. There where shelves on three of the walls, with one wall being reserved for self-made marmalade and conserves. The fourth wall, right below the window, was reserved for grandpa’s tools including a traditional workbench.

I never understood why my dad let himself talk out of getting this workbench, after grandpa had died and they had to empty the apartment.

Back to being a daddy’s girl. This included some embarrassing moments for him, cause there is a long line of years during which you could bet on me knocking over some glass or cup from the table during meals, this also happened regularly when he took me for his morning pints.

When I was about fifteen, my parents decided to build their own house, which was when the real fun began. My dad had always been very talented when it comes to the “handyman” stuff, which resulted in the financing of the house being based on lots of our own hours. In some ways, that summer was even better than the summers spent at my grandparents. There was not a single day when we weren’t at the construction site and despite me having small accidents every other day; I also learned lots of things.

There are only a few tools which I’ll never use, e.g. I have a weird fear of buzz-saws. Guess I’m lucky that we don’t own one.

But – look at this treasure, and please ignore the clutter around ;)

This post went in a completely different direction of what I had initially intended, so there’ll probably be a part two of this.

Boring and random stuff

Following a tradition started by Ingrid, continued by Natazzz, picked up by megelder to be taken up by Natazzz again – I feel compelled to bore you with a list of random facts myself

1. I moved about a million times but the last time was about 9 years ago.

2. My favorite place is somewhere in the Provence, not too far from Lavender fields in the garden of my yet to buy vacation home.

3. The modern Tate Museum impressed me more than the Louvre.

4. I lived in Paris for 5 years and never went inside the Louvre Museum.

5. I don’t like beer, except on hot summer evenings when I crave Panaché

6. I don’t like Cola, neither Cola nor Pepsi. My favorite “soft drinks” are water and fruit juices.

7. I’m not a vegetarian, but can go without meat for weeks and I don’t eat red meat.

8. “They do have salads on the menu” is not the reason why I would choose a restaurant. When dining out, I want to eat dishes I won’t get at home.

9. When I cook, the kitchen always looks as if an experiment had gone wrong. I never learned cooking and am most at ease with dishes that get their finishing in the oven. On the other hand, I do have some talents in baking and my marmalades have a large fan base.

10. I am a nerd and a geek and our living room and my office often look as if they were right out of an SF-movie.

11. I love learning about new things and always research those topics exhaustively.

12. I’ve suffered from various degrees of insomnia all my life but my cat Wölkchen was the best cure against it. For the first years, she always slept on my chest and her purring still puts me to sleep.

13. For reasons unknown to me, pets and kids take to me instantly.

14. I’m incredibly shy.

15. I don’t run nor jog, never.

16. I never smoked, not even once. This accounts for cigarettes and joints. But I was high at least once, on “secondary” smoke at a Pretenders concert.

17. Ages ago, my apartment was burglarized. I’d still like to know what they thought of the “Desert Hearts” tape which was still in the video recorder.

18. I’m not into accessories, not on me, not in the house; and this even extents to cooking and baking, you want decoration or garnitures? Not from me.

19. But I love gadgets, mostly from the electronics department.

20. I hate shopping, doesn’t matter if it’s for groceries or for clothes. The earlier I’m done, the better. Despite this handicap I love shopping at IKEA and most DIY-stores.

21. I can’t read maps but have a good sense of direction combined with a very good, almost photographic memory.

22. I’m not good with numbers. No matter if this stands for a date or a phone number, I’ve got my gadgets to remember to them.

23. Despite the fact that I’m often up early, I’m not a morning person.

24. I’ve always had a thing for women older than me.

25. I love coffee; you wouldn’t want to cross my way until I had my first 3 or 4 cups of morning coffee.