Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - A Review

Yep, it was that time of year again…the Eurovision Song Contest brought to you live from Vienna.

 Let’s have a look at how the 27 candidates did.

 1. Slovenia 
A strange woman in wedding dress wearing a huge headphone (think 1980s) sang about something or other while a ballerina in a glitter outfit did her own thing. Enough said.

 2. France
Being French, the singer was dressed in black (think Edith Piaf) and sang in her native tongue - naturellement! Against a background of white doves on steroids, a bunch of drummers joined the fun.

 3. Israel
This chubby Justin Timberlake wannabe looked like one of the few performers who was having fun. No Tortured Soul here! The catchy dance number will be a summer hit - mark my words.



 4. Estonia
Another Tortured Soul (see France for the first one) showing a lot of cleavage and being leered at by a fellow singer. Creepy…

5. UK
A duo sang a sort of 1920s number surrounded by dancers and lots of special effects. Who has been binge watching Dr. Who?

 6. Armenia
The piano was able to drown out the singers. There were also lots of church bells ringing - a tribute to North West’s baptism in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem?

7. Lithuania
Two singing soap stars with two soap star background singers. Lot of owa, owa, owas. Looked like a scene from the Young and the Rest of Us

8. Serbia
An Opera Diva performed with a mask wearing, flag-waving entourage. A left over from the May 1st parade?

 9. Norway
Another Tortured Soul - this time a midriff baring chick. Completely forgettable.

 10. Sweden
Guy wearing leather pants singing in the digital rain. Multiple stick figures from the For Dummies series moved (danced?) in the background. Singer kept repeating “heroes of our time”, which made it as exciting as Ikea furniture. (Sadly enough, the Boring Swede won)

11. Cyprus
Strumming an acoustic guitar, I got Eric Clapton vibes watching it. At least the singer can play instead of playback.

12. Australia
This entertaining 1980s act included a chick in glitter hot pants. Go Aussies!

 13. Belgium
This time, a Justin Bieber wannabe hit the podium. His four background singers in white looked like extras from a SF show.

14. Austria
Another wannabe; this time Kid Rock. I rest my case.

15. Greece
Guess what? Yep, another wannabe! Channeling Celine Dion, the nicest thing I can say about this singer that I loved her earrings.

16. Montenegro
This singer was one of the few singing in his native tongue - kudos! The melody was catchy and the four muses behind him looked good.

 17. Germany
Catwoman represented the Teutonic State, singing “Too Hot”. Note to singer: “No, you are not!”

 18. Poland
A Las Vegas bride singing next to white piano flanked by 3 background singers. Yawn!

19. Latvia
Firebird in a ridiculous Las Vegas showgirl gown belted out a lot of oh, oh, ohs

20. Romania
This baldie was also singing in his native tongue. Catchy melody, but no idea what it was about.

21. Spain
This time, a Jennifer Lopez wannabe. Singing is Spanish, she also performed a nifty dance number with a hunky guy. Gracias!

 22. Hungary
A quintet of classy singers with good voices. The cameraman had a thing for the singer in the red dress.

 23. Georgia
Goth Girl looked like she belonged at a KISS concert. She sang about something or other; could be anything from love to ousting Putin.

 24. Azerbaijan
Yep, another Tortured Soul! But the two dancers were amazing and obviously trained in classical ballet.

 25. Russia
A skinny Anna Nicole Smith lookalike dressed in white (what else?) belted out a nice song. I rooted for her to win, but she ended in second place. Pity!

26. Albania
This poor singer was completely overpowered by the background music. Lots of ayeh, ayeh, ayehs...Boring!

 27. Italy
Italy sent 3 Divos singing about amore (what else). Singing and styled like the highly successful Il Divo, I liked it.

Next year, it will be Sweden again to host the event. Good luck with that!

Why I Love Latin

When I was a kid, learning Latin was a prerequisite to go the Med or Law School. From the age of 12, I had 2 hours of Latin – every school day for 6 years. I loved it since it allowed me to “time travel” to the Roman Empire of Cicero, Pliny, Ovid, Livius, Vergilius, and Julius Caesar.

Roman noblemen loved to write and self-published way before we are doing now on Amazon. If Internet and social media would have been around in the time of the Roman Emperors, we could have laughed at the selfies of Caligula, watch the YouTube videos of Caesar’s murder online, and read the latest gossip about the private lives of the rich and (in)famous on the Ancient Roman equivalent of TMZ.

Although heaps of (juicy) materials have been lost over time, we still have a treasure trove of legal documents, records, poetry, plays, speeches, letters, academic works, a pamphlets, etc. The Romans were the Americans of today – even the political structure is similar as is the innovative spirit.

Latin became the lingua franca of academics throughout the ages. Erasmus and Thomas More wrote each other in Latin; neither mastered the native tongue of the other. During my first year in Law School, one of my professors taught in Latin. We would take notes and later translate. One time, he said a sentence that we all penned down. He repeated the sentence, so we underlined it. When he repeated it again, we double underlined it assuming it was very important. Turned out that he told us that the sun was shining in his eyes and if one of us could please push the button to lower the blinds…(Afterwards he was forced by the Dean to teach in our native tongue – the fact that he called us “discipuli stultissimi” might have something to do with it)

Roman law codes serve as a fundamental of many current law systems due to Napoleon. Terms such as alibi became mainstream. Common law systems also have many Latin legal terms such as: “habeas corpus” and “intestate”. Roman medicine gave birth to current traditional medicine. English still refers to many organs and illnesses by their Latin names.

Nowadays, Latin is out of fashion. That is a pity in many ways. Once you master Latin grammar, getting the structure of other languages is a lot easier since you can “read the blueprint”. Western languages contain a lot of Latin-based words. The reason? When the Romans conquered Europe, they introduced Vulgar Latin as the lingua franca. Furthermore, they introduced new inventions and concepts that did not have a local name such as: solarium, umbrella, senate, spa, aqueduct, testament, sanitation, etc.

However, authors still sneak in Latin – just for the fun of it. An excellent example is J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series. One gem is the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s motto: “Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus” which translates as “a sleeping dragon must never be tickled”.

Latin might not be fashionable anymore, but it is still firmly rooted in many languages and disciplines. Q.E.D.

(Image courtesy of Natalie Durden at keepcalm-o-matic)

ais Thr Wizard of Oz an allegory of the economic struggles during the late 19th century?

"The Wizard of Oz" is written by L. Frank Baum and originally published in 1900.

According to the author, he came up with Oz due to the index of a filing cabinet. However, oz is also the abbreviation of an ounce of gold.

Hence the theory that the tale represents the economic climate at the end of the 19th century. True or not, it is an interesting history lesson.

The scarecrow supposedly represents the farmers in the western part of the US. Those poor farmers were faced with high mortgages and were in debt to the bankers and Wall Street wheelers and dealers. Due to deflation, those farmers had to pay more and more.

The yellow brick road represents the gold standard. It was aimed at keeping the stability and reliability of currency. The munchkins are supposed to represent east coast residents who strongly believed in it. That’s why Dorothy is urged to "follow the yellow brick road".

The tin man represents industrial workers who also suffered from the rigid gold standard. In 1894 alone, 18% of industrial workers in the US were unemployed.

The cowardly lion refers to William Jennings Bryan. He was a populist leader who thought that adding silver to the gold standard would ease deflation and would solve economic problems.

The Emerald City refers to Washington, D.C. where the money (greenbacks) rule.

Dorothy's slippers were silver in the original version. It’s only later that they turned red for the movie. Being silver, the slippers supposedly save the day by adding silver to the money supply.

Even if the above is not true, it should be! Anyway, it’s an entertaining history lesson.

(Photo courtesy of Pixmac)

Where The NYC Literati Go To Party

Authors Michael Chabon, Gay Talese, Zadie Smith and Scott Turow recently partied at the annual New Yorker Festival at the Top of the Standard.

They rubbed shoulders with rockers Sting and Imagine Dragons. For their next masterpiece, they could have gotten inspiration by the visiting the private booth occupied by “Orange Is the New Black” creator Jenji Kohan and her writer husband Christopher Noxon.

Or may be talking to comedians Mindy Kaling and Nick Kroll, actress Molly Ringwald, It girl Tavi Gevinson or David Remnick would keep their creative juices flowing.

In good social media style, DJ Louie tweeted: “I’m DJing the New Yorker Party at the Standard and am doing everything in my power not to ask Malcolm Gladwell to take a selfie with me.”

The party went on until 3:30 a.m. The most interesting statement was made by Mindy Kaling who happily admitted that she likes on-screen love scenes. She said “I love it. I think it’s anthropologically interesting to watch on-screen love scenes how people kiss.” She sent on pointing out that she often “uses tongue.” This might be infringing on the Screen Actors Guild rules.

Sting took the opportunity to inform the masses that he enjoyed working on his musical “The Last Ship.” He also announced: “I want to get back to my other life, and get paid extravagant amounts of money for very little work.” Whatever.

The rich will stay rich, and the famous will keep on struggling for their top spot in the (social) media. (Just ask any of the Kardashians)

Koons Designed the Cover of Grazer’s Book – Clever PR for All Involved

Jeff Koons designed the jacket for producer Brian Grazer’s upcoming book “A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life.”

Superproducer Brian Grazer has written a book about…curiosity. Pegged as “non-fiction”, publisher Simon & Schuster signed six-figure deal to publish it. The book will examine how curiosity and the endless search for knowledge drive creativity.

Grazer knows a thing or two about creativity. He has for decades conducted weekly “curiosity conversations” with accomplished strangers. Those conversations inspired Grazer to produce movies and TV shows such as “Splash” and “Arrested Development”.

The book, co-written with business journalist Charles Fishman, will be launched on April 7, 2015. For the book cover, Grazer came up with a brilliant (PR) idea – enlisting the services of artist Jeff Koons for the design. A win-win situation – great PR for Grazer and Koons, as well as free pre-publishing hype which will boost (pre)sales.

Why did Grazer turn to Koons? “When we began discussing a design for the jacket of my book, Jeff Koons was the first person I thought of. His pieces have always spoken to me — they are suffused with positivity. My curiosity conversation with him was one of the earliest and most memorable I’ve had, and I remember being especially struck by how generous and genuinely interested he was, in everything. Curiosity is a very natural thing for him – it is the foundation of his work, and his energy as a human being.”

As for the book cover design itself, Grazer stated: “When you look at the simple sketch he came up with, it has so much life and personality, and there is a celebratory quality to it.”

Whether you like the design or not, you have to agree: it’s a great way to get free publicity.

Wishing You All A Good and Sweet New Year - Shana Tova!

Agloe – A Mapmaker’s Protection Against Copycats

Making maps is painstaking work. Mapmakers throughout the ages have been victims of copycats passing their painstaking work off as their own. So how can you prove that someone ripped off the map that you made?

Simple: by adding a fake hamlet! In the 1930s, Otto G. Lindberg was the director of the General Drafting Co. Together with his assistant Ernest Alpers, he created a road map of New York State. To prevent copycats from ripping off their map, they added a totally fictitious place that they named "Agloe" on a remote dirt road. The name is in itself quite brilliant: it’s a mix of their initials OGL (Otto G. Lindberg) and EA (Ernest Alpers).

Lo and behold – the “trap” worked. The map company Rand McNally issued its own New York state map featuring "Agloe." Lindberg promptly sued.

But Rand McNally’s legal defense team came up with an interesting defense. The legal eagles pointed out in court that there was a shop called “Agloe General Store” nearby. Ergo, it must have gotten its name from a nearby village.

The owners of the shop looked at a map distributed by Esso, which owned a plethora of local gas stations. Esso had originally purchased its map featuring Agloe completely legally from Lindberg and Alpers. The store owners assumed that since Esso’s map features Agloe, they might as well name their shop after it. Oh, the irony!

Fast-forward to the 21st century. The all-knowing Google Maps shows Agloe as a destination (including directions!) until recently. Only in 2014 was the Agloe myth exposed and expunged from Google maps.

After 80 years, Agloe has disappeared from the maps. I am pretty sure that AGL and OE up there are laughing their heads off! As for Rand McNally, the company was finally exposed as the map pirate it was.