Okay veen hit me up to remind me that Eurovision was happening and speaking as an American that has never had the opportunity to bask in this awkward continental glory I am forever indebted. Of particular note was Ukraine's representatives Go_A, whose stage show was so amazingly awesome Eurovision has kept it safe from Americans but fortunately there were cammers in the audience. Eurovision, however, has not banned Americans from seeing the pre-recorded "official video" and it is incredible: Incredible production value, incredible seriousness - it's like if Men Without Hats' Safety Dance had been directed by Michael Bay. But is it as good as the official official music video, which I didn't realize johan was linking in chat, and is apparently too awesome for Eurovision? At which point I realize I'm watching a bunch of Ukranians coopting traditional folk music to make it about COVID or possibly Chernobyl and this isn't their schtick? This is their thing. And maybe I should crawl down out of my own asshole. And that maybe the United States needs more Eurovision. Unironically.
I've been reading a lot recently about the history of left-wing organizations in Sweden, particularly the messy offshoots of other cooky offshoots that occurred around 1968 and after. I might do a separate post about bokstavsvänstern ("the alphabet left") at some point to justify this complete waste of time. During this reading I came across this cover of the song "Det är något konstigt med friheten" ("There's something strange about freedom") by Klepsydra, orginally by Knutna nävar, a band with close ties to the offshoot from KFML/SKP that since 1968 has been known as KFML(r), KPML(r) and these days simply K.