Cav's Place

After a 2010 edition that was absolutely outstanding, sandwiched between two other pretty good ones in 2009 and 2011, I guess it was unfortunately about time for the entries to fall again well below that level, resulting this year in an edition that was rather disappointing. Actually, the first semifinal was dreadful, with few acts that could normally be considered as good enough for something like this, and the second had its fair share of crap as well. Thankfully, though the process was far from perfect as it still allowed a few bad acts to go through while keeping a few decent ones out, much of the obvious crap was in fact weeded out, perhaps also thanks to the fact that they gave up on that terrible idea of allowing people to vote throughout the show, so without even trying to see any of the performances first. That resulted in a final of reasonable quality, though it was still very poor when compared to the last few editions, as I said.
I must also mention that, for the first time in quite a few years, I didn’t listen to the songs before the contest. If for the past few years I already knew everything beforehand, now it was all new for me and there was no more need to try to ignore any previous opinion I might have formed about an act. That probably made it easier to rank in some ways and harder in others, but it certainly made the overall quality of the entries an unpleasant surprise.

During the semifinal, I was raising an eyebrow when our commentators were saying that Sweden was the favorite by far, but the song sort of grew on me after listening to it a few more times afterwards, so when I heard it again in the final I gave it another half a point compared to the semifinal score. Sure, it’s not exactly something to write home about, but when this edition lacked any outstanding entries, coupling a song that grows on you with a pretty good show value is enough for first place, so I have to agree.
Russia was also a deserving second place, though not necessarily based on the performance itself. That was good enough and certainly one of the best overall when compared to the others this year, but it probably wouldn’t have been quite enough for second place without the novelty factor, if I may call it that. With it, I had to put them clearly above anyone else but Sweden, which makes this the first time ever when the first two places matched my first two picks.
Serbia had a reasonably good song, I won’t deny that, but it had nothing to make it stand out and the fact that it wasn’t in English meant that any message it might have had was completely lost on me, so I couldn’t place it any higher than I did. I don’t exactly mind that it was among the top few, but I certainly would have had a few others before it.
This time around, I didn’t like the Azeri entry. I didn’t dislike it either, nothing went wrong and the performance was more solid than that of at least a few of those I put above it in my classification, but the song itself didn’t tell me much of anything, the singer was too fake and there was almost no movement on stage, with the show value relying on those images showing up on her dress, which is a kind of trick that I’m not keen on since it has nothing to do with the actual performers.
As for Albania… Yes, great voice, but that song made my ears bleed, found it absolutely dreadful. It supposedly had a message, but that was certainly all wasted when she sang it in her own language, and adding the utter disregard for any show value meant that I had no other place for it except the last one. How could it end up fifth is quite beyond me.

As far as my ranking system goes, I kept it as last year, so once again allowing half-point marks. The rest of the explanation is in the entry for 2011, so I won’t repeat it here, though I must say that it’s still not properly calibrated and I was still trying to come up with some rules as I went along, largely by comparing songs with previous ones that I had given similar marks to. But it worked out well enough in the end, and I dread to think how hard it’d have been to rank if I’d have continued to use the previous system, considering the lack of any outstanding entries.
Once again, largely for my own use, I’ll add the actual ratings here as well, with the first number after the country name being the overall rating, the second being the rating for the song and the third, added if it’s not neutral, being the personal opinion modifier. Links to all songs are also added because they are now posted on the official channel, so for once they shouldn’t vanish so quickly anymore. The actual ranking is listed between parentheses before the country’s name.

1. (1.) Sweden (6.75, 6.5)
2. (2.) Russia (6.75, 6.5, minus)
3. (20.) Iceland (6.5, 7, plus)
4. (10.) Spain (6.5, 7, minus)
5. (25.) United Kingdom (6.5, 6.5)
6. (12.) Romania (6.5, 6.5)
7. (19.) Ireland (6.5, 6)
8. (6.) Estonia (6.25, 7)
9. (3.) Serbia (6.25, 6.5, minus)
10. (17.) Greece (6.25, 6, plus)
11. (16.) Cyprus (6.25, 6, plus)
12. (21.) Malta (6.25, 6, plus)
13. (22.) France (6.25, 6, minus)
14. (11.) Moldova (6.25, 6, minus)
15. (18.) Bosnia & Herzegovina (6, 6.5, minus)
16. (24.) Hungary (6, 6, plus)
17. (4.) Azerbaijan (6, 6, plus)
18. (13.) Macedonia (6, 6)
19. (23.) Denmark (6, 6)
20. (8.) Germany (6, 6)
21. (15.) Ukraine (6, 5.5, plus)
22. (26.) Norway (6, 5.5)
23. (14.) Lithuania (5.75, 6)
24. (9.) Italy (5.75, 5.5)
25. (7.) Turkey (5.75, 5)
26. (5.) Albania (5.25, 5.5)

I got Russia and Sweden right, was two places off for Estonia and three off for Bosnia & Herzegovina and Moldova. On the other hand, at least ten places off for Albania, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Turkey and United Kingdom. Actually, after being 23 places off for Italy last year, I may need to start making a separate section for entries that I place at least 20 places off, because I had two now, being 20 places off for United Kingdom and 21 off for Albania!
As for the semifinals, my lists had Belgium, Latvia and San Marino instead of Albania, Hungary and Moldova in the first and Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Portugal and Slovenia instead of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine in the second. However, I only felt bad for Belgium, Slovenia and, most notably, Portugal, the other five being entries that were largely in the top ten just because there had to be a top ten, not because I actually wanted them to qualify. On the other hand, I didn’t mind the fact that Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary and possibly also Moldova did qualify despite being outside my top ten, as you could say that they ended up there due to certain peculiarities of my ranking system.

In the end, let me briefly explain my top ten picks, as I usually do.
As I already said, Sweden’s song does grow on you and that’s enough for first place when coupled with a pretty good show value and the fact that no entries stood out this year. I’m not even sure it’d have been in the top ten in 2010, but this year it was probably the best act overall, yes.
Russia, again as I already said, got a certain amount of sympathy from me thanks to being a group of apparently nice old ladies, which also led to slightly different expectations regarding the quality of the singing. The idea of creating a traditional kitchen scene was also a nice touch, being one of the very few entries with a decent show value.
I really liked Iceland’s song as far as the composition goes, saw it as clearly the best song of the competition from that point of view. However, I couldn’t place it any higher due to the lack of any notable show value, though if it would have had that I probably would have taken a little off the song score instead, because their voices didn’t quite fit the quality of the composition, particularly in the final.
Spain had a great voice and a good song. However, it wasn’t outstanding, it wasn’t in English and nothing happened on stage, the vocalist even appearing alone for the first half of the act, so I certainly couldn’t have placed it any higher.
The United Kingdom had a very solid entry overall. It didn’t stand out in any way, it was below Estonia, Iceland and Spain in terms of the song itself and below Ireland, Russia and Sweden in terms of show value, but it was decent in both categories, which was enough for fifth spot.
About Romania… I might have been a little subjective for once, possibly also because of their problems during the semifinal, which made me need to compensate a little then and probably left me with those ratings fixed in mind for the final as well. It was a solid entry, however, the song was at least decent, it had a little show value as well and there were next to no other entries in the same genre.
Ireland is seventh largely thanks to the show value, as they were among the very few to actually bother with that. The song wasn’t bad, but that’s about it.
Estonia had a good song, certainly one of the very best this year, but the lack of any show value whatsoever hurt it, as did the fact that it was in Estonian, so I couldn’t place it any higher.
As I already said, Serbia had a reasonably good song, but the fact that it wasn’t in English meant that any message that it might have had was entirely lost and the lack of a notable show value hurt it as well. There was something interesting going on there, but it simply wasn’t enough.
As for the Greek entry, in the semifinal I considered it similar but marginally better than Romania’s, but after listening to it again in the final I found myself deducting half a point from the song rating due to certain sounds that I’m really not keen on, which is why it ended up only tenth.

The good news is that Paul Watson has been granted bail on Friday and released from prison yesterday. The bad news is that the extradition process continues and, if Costa Rica will submit the required paperwork within 90 days and the German Minister of Justice will not intervene to dismiss the case as politically motivated, this obviously won’t make any difference, as he’ll still end up in a Costa Rican prison. Worse, he and those around him appear genuinely concerned that, if that happens, the Costa Rican mafia will make sure he won’t live long enough for the trial to conclude.
The outpouring of support for captain Watson and the pressure generated by it ever since his arrest undoubtedly had a significant influence on the decision to grant him bail, but this pressure must be increased in the coming days if he is to be allowed to return to what he does best, which is struggling to save the lives of whales, turtles, sharks, tunas and many other species of fish. As such, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for a global day of action with the occasion of the Costa Rican president’s visit to Germany. Tomorrow, May 23, is S.O.S. Day (Save Our Skipper), and you are being asked not only to continue sending respectful messages to the German Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs, but also to take the demands to save captain Watson to the doorsteps of Germany’s diplomatic missions around the globe by staging protests demanding his release in front of German embassies and consulates everywhere between 11 AM and 1 PM (local time).

This is a message not only for all Sea Shepherd supporters, but also for all those who care for life on this planet in general and for the oceans in particular. If you can participate in such a protest, please do so. If not, try to at least contact the nearest German embassy or consulate in some way and perhaps also send another message to the German Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs, remembering to remain calm and respectful. Unite and make your voices heard tomorrow in any way you can!

I was saying that I hoped to somehow manage to write two non-personal posts this week, but I was obviously right to doubt that I could do it. In fact, with the previous post being nothing more than an action alert, it could even be said that I wrote no proper posts this week and only did the bare minimum necessary to keep the “buffer” at two. And that certainly wasn’t because I was busy doing anything else, since the only noticeable thing I did this week was update Mario Wibisono’s section in my little fantasy art gallery after he added some new works on his deviantART page and also modified several older ones, quite a few of which were already among the ones I had selected for the gallery. Otherwise, I didn’t go anywhere, I’m still not playing any games and I’m ashamed to say that I still didn’t start reading any of those books either…
At least I keep adding to my story and did manage to get somewhere for a moment, after five or six more or less pointless chapters, but it certainly seems like it won’t last and I’ll get stuck again very quickly, since I’m still in that portion that requires things that I simply can’t wrap my mind around. But the simple fact that I manage to keep adding something to it every day, as little and as crappy as it is, certainly explains a good part of the reason why I simply can’t handle the blog almost at all anymore, since I just calculated that the number of words that I now add to my story per week is pretty much equal to two serious blog posts of average size. As a result, after struggling for the past year to improve my pace there, perhaps from extremely embarrassing to “just” very embarrassing, I’m now hitting my limit for serious and at least reasonably calculated writing from it alone, leaving absolutely nothing for the blog.

I’ve been following up on the story of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society‘s captain Paul Watson‘s recent arrest in Germany, hoping to be able to write a brief post about his release. Unfortunately, the situation developed in the opposite direction and a preliminary extradition warrant has been requested instead, which turns this post into a call to action. We’re talking about a man being arrested essentially for doing the right thing, about an iconic leader of the environmental and animal rights movements risking being handed over to those who care nothing for other species and readily trade the long-term good of the world in general and even that of humanity in particular for selfish short-term economic benefits and about a very important organization wasting precious time and resources with a legal battle instead of going out there and saving the lives that need saving! Admittedly, perhaps those aren’t human lives, but why should that make any difference?
If you want to help, and I’ll come out here and kindly as you to do so, you can at the very least respectfully contact the German Federal Minister of Justice, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Guido Westerwelle, since they appear to be the ones who can intervene at the moment, even the public prosecutor stating during the hearing that they have the power to stop the extradition procedure if they consider that the charges are politically motivated. On top of that, you could and likely should also spread the word about this, especially if you know anyone from Germany or even anyone who at least knows German well enough to write the messages in it, as that may well increase the impact. And last but not least, if you can afford it and are willing to do so, you can of course also donate to Sea Shepherd’s legal defense and education fund in order to help cover their legal expenses.

Oddly enough, if last week it was hard not to immediately start reading the books I got, this week I hardly even thought of it, so they’re still sitting there on the shelf. And it’s not like I did much of anything else, to say that I had to focus or had some other use for the time. Sure, I somehow managed to stick to my writing plan in spite of being almost certain that I’ll fail every single day, but I didn’t spend as much as a single minute playing any games, didn’t do any more work on the site… I did go through that other little book I mentioned in that post, but didn’t even manage to “compress” a part of it into a list and turn that into a post, as the original plan was.
Admittedly, for a good part of the week, on top of the usual issues, my mind was stuck on the fact that I had a dentist’s appointment on Friday to sort out that filling that fell out some two months or so ago. Thankfully, that went very well, though oddly enough it apparently hadn’t fallen from where I thought it had, but instead from above that place, simply lodging itself in between those teeth then. Or at least that’s what I was told, because I still find it rather hard to believe, but at the same time it would explain some things, so I guess it may be true.

The first order of business for next week is to submit some more things on MobyGames, because I’m still quite a lot behind “schedule” this year due to the fact that I did next to nothing until the end of February and have so far made up for only about half of that. Otherwise, I obviously need to at least maintain the current pace, as crappy as it is, with my story and should also find some way to write two non-personal posts here and therefore finally get that “buffer” back to four at least, though I still find it hard to believe that I actually will manage to do so, so don’t hold your breath. Past this, I don’t even plan to try anything else, hoping to at least manage to recover a little energy and perhaps be able to do slightly more later, though of course that hardly ever works out.

But now I just managed to find a moment when the kitchen was clear and went there to grab a little to eat and today’s newspapers, so that’s about it with this post and let’s hope that I’ll somehow manage to hold it together well enough for the next one to not be personal as well. And let’s also hope that I’ll actually get around to starting to read those books very soon, because this is starting to be pretty embarrassing, if not necessarily unexpected, considering my usual state of mind and how long it’s been since I last had new books to read.