Monday, October 24, 2005

Lost In Music

Last night was a big night for music down here in Oz. We had the Australian music awards The ARIAS. We had the Motown week on Australian Idol. Over on SBS we had the 50 Years of Eurovision special.

I only watched the second half of Idol, as I forgot that this week it was on earlier than usual. It was surprisingly good. This season has been a bit 'meh' for me, none of the contestants were really drawing my interest in that much. Those that were consistently giving good performances were (for the most part) doing material that wasn't that appealing to me, or had a style that I didn't dig, or were really not showing much growth. That seems to have changed though, because of the performances I saw, and from the recaps of the others, it looked like everyone upped it a few notches last night, and Daniel in particular seems to have come ahead in leaps and bounds.

The Arias were kind of excruciating, but I'd say that about most music award shows. Too much hooting and air punching for me. I was channel surfing between it, the Eurovision special and the very entertaining Casanova* mini-series on the ABC. (Stupid broken video recorder.) The Arias opened with a live performance of "Voodoo Child" by dance outfit Rogue Traders, a risky move given the disasterous live renditions by dance acts in previous years (*cough*Madison Avenue*cough*). All the awards that were based on single or album Cd sales showed just how dominant the Australian Idol marketing juggernaut is.

I only caught bits of the Eurovision special, what with the channel surfing and my poor SBS reception and all, but the bits I did see were either completely fabulous ('80s flashbacks and mangled English lyrics) or turned my brain to mush so that it started leaking out of my ears. I'm a fan of the Eurovision song contest, but this special was like someone upped the dial labelled 'cheese' and set the dial marked 'excitement' to off.

On balance, not a bad Sunday evening in though.

[*Having only seen David Tennant in photos before I was really surprised at how appealing, and well sexy, he was in this mini series. I'm a sucker for cheekiness I guess. I hope this bodes well for his role as the new Dr Who.]

10 comments:

harry said...

I love how ARIA judges are selected. Tom on Subby who are Standup comics who have a shift on TripleM received invitations to be ARIA judges. They mercilessly took the piss saying "What the hell do we know about music: we're comics!"

Anonymous said...

We were watching the beginning too (while sewing my costume) and I was like, "Man, that Rogue Traders chick looks just like that girl from Neighbours!" and my friend Leanne started insisting it was her, and it became this big argument throughout the course of the song until she whipped off her wig and I was like, "Whoa, Izzy!" I need to read up on them more and figure out how the hell she got involved.

The Other Andrew said...

Yeah Kris, I had a weird disconnect on that one too. Maybe the chick in the film clip can't actually sing... wouldn't be the first time. That wig was pretty good I thought. As I thought to myself 'Good wig, I wonder where she got it?' I then realised that all over Australia drag queens were all thinking the same thing.

Anonymous said...

[*Having only seen David Tennant in photos before I was really surprised at how appealing, and well sexy, he was in this mini series. I'm a sucker for cheekiness I guess. I hope this bodes well for his role as the new Dr Who.]

Only slightly diverging from topic, Andrew but...

Have you heard that John Barrowman (Captain Jack) is doing a new series called Torchwood? Ooh, this is going to be good. He still plays Captain Jack (as in Doctor Who), it's written by Russell as well and... well, I was reading about it at http://johnbarrowman.com/ (and he sings! and does musicals!) And he was in Doctor Who and is cheeky. Not so-ooo far from your David Tennant comment, right?


loulou

The Other Andrew said...

oh. Oh! OH!

John Barrowman, j'adore. I posted ages back about getting all tickly in my tummy when I saw the Dr Who & Cap'n Jack kiss on the finale ep of the 1st season of the new Dr Who. John Barrowman is teh sexy. He was interviewed in the Aussie gay mag DNA a little while back, as one of the rare openly gay actors. Hotness!

Oh, it's not the first time and probably mot the last, but you just made my day! *smooches*

The Other Andrew said...

Mot? Er, not.

Anonymous said...

.. I posted ages back about getting all tickly in my tummy when I saw the Dr Who & Cap'n Jack kiss on the finale

No surprise but me too. I got tickly in my tummy. Makes me go all thing. Who says that? :P

So if I have the extra cash I will be buying the dvd box set from Amazon.co.uk. £44.99 and it's released November 21. Plus, geeky moi, or whatever it is, Russell has "Doctor Who", the Shooting Scripts which will thrill me like you wouldn't believe. I love this shit!

When I get back to London, it's a mad dash thru' all the West End musicales for mio. It would be great if Barrowman did a panto or something. He is so charismatic and yummy. Oh ::sigh::.

Glad I could make your day, petal. Kisses back 'atcha.

loulou

The Other Andrew said...

I think the thing with Mr Barrowman is that he has the classic 40's movie star look, the strong jaw, cleft chin etc. (Michael will hate me saying this, but B'affleck has the same look on a good day.)

Knowing that John Barrowman is a big 'mo just sweetens the allure for me. It's so refreshing to see an actor with any sort of profile stand up and be honest. (This doesn't contradict what I said about Takei, I was making a joke about the fact that it was no surprise to anyone with him.)

Anonymous said...

I hmmmm let me think, I can take a really deep breath when there is another person who can just be themselves. It's not so much that it sweetens the allure as it does with you.

It makes me feel the world can be a better place to live because of it. No need for delicate wording or deliberately not mentioning anything sexual.

I don't know if I said it right, but it makes for less tension, less falsity, so more... ya know, LOVE. And TRUTH. and FREEDOM. and BEAUTY. Awwwwww. Sweet ole me. :P

Anonymous said...

Oh wait.

This is what I came to post and didn't know where else to put it.

Here's some photos of David Tennant on set with Billie. (sorry about the long url but I don't know how to shorten it)

http://www.sky.com/showbiz/picture_gallery/0,,50001-1201555-1,00.html

Cheeky monkey. I've got to tell you that was one of my nicknames as a child, as well. Yep. And Angelface. Sweet and innocent and trrrrrrouble.
Now, of course, I'm just sweet and innocent.


loulou