Contest @ MindSay

I'm going off track a little here to talk about a certain European song contest. Music being my priority.

I watched the Eurovision song contest last night. The only reason I watched it was to be entertained by the commentary of Terry Wogan.

Those of you outside Europe may not know this competition, but within Europe, it's always been a big deal.

I have to say that the general outcome was really no surprise at all. With neighbour countries having a habit of casting votes for each other. Especially what I like to call Eastern Bloc Europe. So Russia won it this year. What a surprise!

I had to laugh when one judge said "The best song in Europe", and one of the judges unknowingly got very close to the truth when they said it was a "Great concert", because a concert is pretty much all it was. It certainly isn't a fair competition any more. Terry Wogan said something like that. He is even considering not commenting on the competition next year, I mean concert :)

Am I sore that the British song came joint last with votes from ony 2 countries? No, I'm very shocked though, because I considered it one of the best 5 songs, and I would like to think that I know a bit about music.

It's even more astounding if you look at all the European music charts. There's always British and American songs in there somewhere. And why is that? Well, because it's cutting edge.

I thought it was between Turkey and Norway for the title. Turkey's song was modern sounding, and shared similarites with a great band called Muse, and for great songwriting skill, I had to go for Norway. Well at least those two got into the top 10. The British song was a pretty good song, and also deserved to be in the top 10. My sympathy to Poland and Germany too (The Polish entry was pretty good) who were holding up the table with us. I wonder when Europe started seeing them as politically close to the UK? Political, you hear me cry?

That's right. The competition now has a new name for me. The Eurovision Political Popularity Contest. Well, it's certainly not about the merits of the compositions. I think that was made blindingly obvious last night.

So what do I think of Europe?

I love it, and would like to visit all the European countries in my lifetime, and meet the locals. I'm just a normal individual who loves people and doesn't colour them for the deeds of their fellow countrymen.

You can choose to agree or disagree with what I say. I wouldn't say I am qualified to pass judgement on that show. After all, I'm just a Songwriter :)

My friend, Aaron Sidwell, has made it to the TOP TWENTY in the American Idol Songwriting contest. Please, go to AmericanIdol.com and register to vote for his song "Something Like Heaven".

www.myspace.com/aaronsidwellmusic

 http://cdbaby.com/cd/aaronsidwell

And continuing on from entry 32 - here is the scene from Stand By Me that inspired the section below from chapter 42 of Fire Of Glory.

I only realised today that I'm the one playing the FoG role of Lard Ass.

Tee hee... Oh well. :)

"Okay, you all know the rules. This is a NU-NH contest, no hands or forks allowed - 'kay?"

He took out a whistle. "Oh my mark..."

"Three... Two... One..." He blew it hard, and everyone set off.

SPLAT! LuigiGirl buried her face into the pie below her.

Everyone else did likewise, forgetting all possible table-manners, munching like pigs that’d just finished dieting.

Dixie was the first to finish hers first. "Done!" She called, and a Koopa threw another pie down onto the table in front of her.

"Done!" Andrew called, only seconds after Dixie.

"Done!" LuigiGirl called afterwards, as another pie was set in front of her.

A few moments later, everyone was onto their third pies, their faces covered with thick berry-filling.

"Good, huh?" Dixie asked, in-between mouthfuls.

"Nothin' better!" LuigiGirl exclaimed.

"Done!" Dixie announced, onto her fourth.

Andrew glared at her, plunging his face right into the centre of his pie, almost swallowing the whole contents of the dish in one go. "Done!"

"Done!" LuigiGirl called afterwards.

The contest ran steady for the next several minutes, Dixie leading with nine pies, Andrew on seven, LuigiGirl on six, Mack, Donovan, Edward and Zed on five.

"Take it easy Dixie!" Koopinator warned.

"Done!" LuigiGirl called. "He's right, take it easy, eh?" She said, before yet another pie was set in front of her.

Dixie ignored them both. "Done!" She yelled, before shoving her face into her tenth pie.

A few moments later, she began choking, coughing and spluttering loudly.

She grabbed her glass, and chugged the whole pint of 'water' down in one go.

LuigiGirl raised her head, glancing awkwardly at her partner. "Done!" She called. "Geez, we told ya to-"

Dixie stopped, bringing her head up.

"Oh..." She groaned, clutching her stomach. "Suddenly I... I don't feel so good..."

"Are you okay?" LuigiGirl asked, beginning to slightly panic.

Dixie slowly stood up from her chair, her stomach growling rabidly, like a wild dog.

Andrew pulled his head free from his ninth pie.

"Hey-hey, what's up? Has poor little Dixie got a tummy ache? Pah, you'll never make it as far as me!" He mocked.

"Keep eatin' those pies, Bandwidth! It was great to have you quiet for more than three seconds!" LuigiGirl growled.

"Pah." Andrew said again, sneering at Dixie. "She's a wuss, never will beat the almighty Bandwidth at eating contests!"

"Andrew..." Dixie coughed. "You better shut up... Or I'll-"

Dixie gasped, her eyes rolling backwards in fear.

She opened her mouth to finish her sentence - but a cascading waterfall of purple vomit erupted from her throat, tumbling from her mouth, and drenching Andrew in a purple sticky mess.

Dixie didn't stop, she continued breathing fire for around two minutes - by this time, Andrew had almost drowned in the purple sea, and the floor had somehow flooded too.

Dixie coughed hard, before closing her eyes, and tumbling backwards, landing with a hard thump on the floor.