Oh what a night!

Where do I start? Interesting mix of events in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday evening, news reached us that Ted Kennedy had a malignant brain tumour with approx. 1-5 years to live. As he is widely considered the patriarch of the Democratic party, and is of course a 'Cape Coddah', my SO was a little downcast at the news. Then this was followed by Barack Obama cinching Oregon, making him the surefire candidate for the Democratic nomination. I am unsure whether he is the best candidate overall (a lot of hot air, and good speechwriters, if you ask me, but can he deliver the goods?) and whether he can take on 'Ken' McCain and 'Barbie'.
Time will tell.

After drooling over Kate Hepburn ànd Cary Grant (C.K. Dexter Haaaaaven!) in the 'Philadelphia Story', we geared up for the first semi-final of the Eurovision songfestival, coming to us from Belgrade, Serbia this year. They might just as well have named this the Eurovision campfest. Some impressions: a bunch of vampire angels, an ice skater and a barefoot singer on ice, an Armenian cha-cha girl, lots of back-up dancers (not singers, mind you) in varying states of undress, a woman clutching a teddy bear, a turkey puppet, Gritney Spears, a Donatella Versace clone with teeth so white you could have probably spotted them from the back of the arena, etc.

Needless to say that the Belgian entry, with its Amélie Poulain simplicity, was doomed to fail. Next year, they should just select five or ten of the gayest guys possible, add a few pink feathers and make them sing a Kylie Minogue song like Wow or 'It's raining men'. Oh well, we had some seriously good giggles and a lot of text messages flew up and down.

In other news, you may remember the two girls, Yanaika and Stephanie, from the Flemish take on 'My Restaurant Rules', featured last week on this blog. Well, the Flemish public overwhelmingly voted these young ladies to the finale, over the entrants from my city, Antwerp. Of course, I was rooting for the Limburghettes although I forgot to vote.

One hangover and a lot of popcorn later, "this is one of those days that the pages of history teach us are best spent lying in bed"...

Must-have: Meneghini fridge

I'm a sucker for anything related to the kitchen and since we're pondering the acquisition of a new fridge, I've been looking around. Of course, my eye had to fall on the one, most expensive fridge in the marketplace. You'd think it was cast in gold. For a mere 5,000 pounds, it can grace our kitchen in all its custom-made glory.

I think we need to get married soon, and get the embossed invites with the little insert card, which reads, please sponsor our beautiful new fridge, account no. so and so.

Splendiferous... Of course, we'd require a blue one.

Seven Songs Meme

Tagged once again, by Suburban Mum this time.

The rules:-
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

Tagging seven other people is hard (especially when they're lacksadaisical about blogging; I'm eyeballing you, Frau Genau), so if you're interested to pick up the thread, feel free.

Anyhow, here is my selection of the moment.

1. Armand van Helden: You don't know me. There's just something so upbeat to the melody of this song, that it makes me want to dance.



2. Yazoo: Situation. We watched an interesting movie last week, based on The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis. The movie was so-so, but at least it reminded me of this fantastic song by Yazoo. By the way, they were on tv on Saturday evening during Wossy's show.



3. Mick Hucknall: Farther on up the road. I heard this played live on Later with Jools Holland last Saturday and I simply loved it. For those in the UK, catch it on bbc's iplayer.

4. The Human League: see below for Love Action, which has to be the top song on my list at the moment.

5. The Blue Nile: Tinseltown in the Rain. My all-time favourite. It won't ever go away.




6. Devendra Banhart: Samba Vexillographica. In my defense, what can I say. It just stuck in my head. The video is someone's own creation (not mine, I hasten to add), with a certain old school charm to it.



7. And last but not least, la belle Kylie: Wow! The insistent wow-wow-wow-wow in this song is so catchy and the song generally so summery, that it has me hopping through the house and swinging on my bike.



You might have guessed from my selection that a lot of it has to do with the gym and keeping a certain rhythm under the glare of Gerda, the torture meister...

The meme also said that I had to stick with the seven songs that I'm into RIGHT NOW, so I had to whittle it down a little and couldn't include Bjork's Aeroplane, Offenbach's Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille, Madonna's Don't Tell me, Caetano Veloso's Cucurrucu Paloma, Cheba Djenet's C'est fini, j'en ai marre, Schubert's Gesang uber den Wassern, and many others. But I digress. There you have my seven. Feel free to post your own selection and linkback.

One cyclone + one earthquake =

Wiping out*

La Rochelle, France
Charleston, South Carolina, US
Forli, Italy
Rockhampton, Australia
Ulm, Germany
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Uzghorod, Ukraine
Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Dili, East Timor
Chandannagar, India
Oxford, the United Kingdom
Jabaliya, the largest Palestine refugee camp, Gaza Strip
Leiden, the Netherlands
Tarragona, Spain
Lusaka, Zambia
Cherkessk, Russia
Bam, Iran (45000 killed during the 2003 earthquake)
Lhasa, Tibet
Potosi, Bolivia
Guzman, Mexico
Bhutan
Riobamba, Ecuador
Vanuatu
Peoria, Arizona, US
The entire Parsi population in India today
...

* towns/countries with a population of 120,000

It's time to start DONATING people! No time to waste... Children and adults alike need clean water, food, tents, etc. to survive and start rebuilding what's left of their lives.

Photo AP.

So get out there and find your local Red Cross or Unicef affiliate.

A voice from my past - The Human League

I'm so into this song lately. My flashback to the Eighties! Shoulder pads, khol around the eyes, the slim ties...



And of course George Michael rehashed it for his "Shoot the Dog"....

A prayer for the dead: Myanmar and China

Isn't it odd to think that in the past week approx. 75,000 people died as a result of natural forces?
That in one fell swoop so many souls left the organised chaos known as earth? Heart-rending: the many children.

My thoughts are with them.

Jodie Foster leaves partner of 14 years?

Just months after Jodie Foster gave a shout-out to her partner of 14 years as she accepted the Lansing Award, there is a rumour flying around the Interweb that they have broken up...

Since the source is the Daily Mail by way of the National Enquirer, I tend to be somewhat sceptical. Still, how sad, if it is indeed the case. What prompts a couple to call it quits after being together for such a long time? Especially when there are children involved?

I am kind of antiquated, a dodo if you will, that thinks that you mate for life, much like swans.
Experience, people around me, have obviously taught me that this is not the case for everyone.

The same newspaper, by the way, has a rather pleasant article about Mrs Fantastic, aka Christine Marinoni, Cynthia Nixon's better half.

UPDATED TO ADD: (More) rumour has it that Ms. Foster is dating a 27-yr old agent. Name and photo are already on the net, but since it is unsubstantiated and - I think - an invasion of that person's privacy, I will just leave it at that.