Tag: eurovision

Trivial Posts #18: A Block Of Time, A Book Of Delights, And A Picture Of You

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Since the last weekly newsletter I’ve been to San Francisco… and made it home again. Lots to cover this week, so without too much hesitation… What Have I Been Up To? Every time I decide to fly to America, something ‘big’ happens back home, and this week was no exception. A week of catching up with old friends and new companies in Silicon Valley clashed with the BBC saying something about how the UK Song for Europe was going to be selected. My thoughts on that are here (and you can catch up on all the continent’s Eurovision news through

The BBC’s delightfully decisive and subversive entry to Eurovision 2015

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I have many thoughts on the UK entry, and could talk a lot about it (I have a website for that) but I’m going to boil it down to this. The BBC’s Guy Freeman realised what ‘Contest’ means. Only the result on the night matters. Not chart success, not YouTube views, not fan opinion or if it works down the Euroclub. It’s a Contest, and finding a way to score is the only mark that counts. Freeman (who heads the BBC’s delegation) could have played it safe, found a nice middle of the road song, dug up a manic pixie dream

Trivial Posts #5: Making Rent, Listening To The Fall, And Lego Diamonds

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Welcome to 2015, and welcome to the first ‘Trivial Posts’ of the New Year, as I bring together and week’s worth of  interesting posts, ideas, video clips, essays, images, and anything else that catches my eye on the Internet. Don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you never miss anything trivial! Living With AirBNB How many people have looked at AirBNB, looked at a spare room, and thought that it can’t be that easy? Probably a lot more people than will read Rachel Signer’s thoughts on doing just that in a New York brownstone with two other flatmates looking to reduce the rent

Eurovision songs reach the Top 40, Radio One holds its nose and has to play them. Win!

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I’ve been quiet about my Eurovision activities on this blog over the last two or three weeks (on the assumption that you all know where to find me, or saw the Twitter action), but I want to highlight this little fact. Four Eurovision songs reached the Top 40 yesterday, and 12 tracks made the Top 100. The power of social media and the ability to instantly buy digital music online has once more been able to show that the music does have an impact. The old-school gatekeepers might not hand tracks like ‘Undo’ or ‘Calm After The Storm’ a physical

On reaching 250 Eurovision podcasts

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This week I published my 250th podcast on The Eurovision Song Contest. Given the show is a ‘weekly’ (with some notable exceptions during the year, such as the twice daily schedule in the few days before the Contest), 250 is as good a milestone as any to take note and remember where the podcast has taken me. The first audio tracks I recorded for Eurovision were from Moscow and the 2009 Contest – those downloads were three ‘alternative ‘commentary’ track so you could watch the show along with me. It was during the run up to Norway in 2010 that