It’s All Showbiz! w/poll

2 Comments

1. 

   matty fred on August 3, 2005 at 12:38 pm

   Yushchenko is no stranger to showbiz:

   The program’s saving grace, of course, is in the details, and in this case the interesting details are genuinely political. For the Ukraine, hosting the Eurovision symbolically represents the embrace of Europe and the sloughing off of Russian hegemony. Ukrainian president Victor Yushenko is happy to hand out the grand prize to the winner (this year, a J-Lo-esque Swedish Greek named Elena Paparizou). Yushenko said earlier in an interview leading up to the Eurovision that “any events that contribute to the integration of Ukraine into Europe are important and sacred.” For the Ukraine there is nothing camp or kitsch about the event at all; there’s an air of empowerment and acceptance in the eyes of the EU that furthers their own independence — something also reflected by the former Yugoslav and Baltic states voting politically against their former masters. Rather, it’s the new nations coming into the Eurovision every year that keep the musical farce interesting, as far as that is possible. But for Europeans it’s almost sad to see kitsch and camp being embraced so optimistically and enthusiastically: it makes European politics appear that much more insignificant and pathetic in contrast.

   • 

     matty fred on August 3, 2005 at 12:41 pm

     The money quote from the article (how did I miss it?):

     On television, the Eurovision and the UK election seem to indicate a future where both mediated politics and televised entertainment are interchangeable, both equally glib and manufactured — presenting contrived and distracting fare to disguise the bending away or complete departure from reality. It might seem like a swish and flashy show now, but it begs considering a rather dreary future where reality and real issues are just trifling and superfluous tele-visual elements — and that would be a disaster for us all.