Lopez Blogs

Blimey! I was far too lazy to do a weekly update last week, and I'm not sure I have much to write about this week! Darren and I did have a lovely date night last night. He cooked a delicious lasagne which was yummers beyond belief. I made a rather edible Crunchie Banoffee Caramel Pie (thanks to Donal Skehan) which tasted a lot better than my poor presentation skills (pic here) would have you believe! Plus really, I could have broken up the crunchies a little bit better couldn't I? Still those socks I am wearing are really warm and comfortable. Anyway, enough about me. Here is a whistle stop tour of what's been entertaining me this past week...

Frankie & The Heartstrings: Brillo northern England indie-pop combo who actually make rather excellent pieces of music that jangles with organic passion and infinite catchiness. Take the track "Hunger", performed above - part of it is very Dexy's Midnight Runners, mixed with Pulp. Amongst those rather lazy comparisons though lies a confident melody driven song that is full of cocky swagger and singalong anthem chorus. The band have chosen to do it all themselves, indicating that creating music as addictive as this is their chief goal rather than raking in the cash. With an engaging lead singer, a foppish look and putting a bit of pizazz back into indie-pop, it's an act I'm already fast becoming obsessed with...
The Drums: It's ridiculous that I've missed this band actually. Hidden among the Ellie Goulding and Erik Hassles on this years "next best things" list, this act actually have the description that makes me most want to check their music ("Mixing the surf pop of The Beach Boys, with the eerie romance of The Cure"). Tracks like the excellent Lets Go Surfing seem so effortlessly enjoyable, that it's hard not to sing along before the end of your first listen, while I Felt Stupid remind me of a slightly more cheerful Upper Room (who were amazing and are still lamented by me). Hurrah then for Park Fierce for reminding me to check them out :)

The Millionaires: Is it too early to have a feisty girl group that comes more from the school of Ke$ha than of anyone else? The Millionaires have been around for a little while now and have finally won me over with their frenetic, disco meets electro meets pop hybrid sound that smacks you right in the goolies with it's grab ya chorus rather than general seducing you. Take Your Shirt Off already sounds like it's been at the top of the US charts for a month while X Rated Christmas is just the right side of slutty and fun that I like. Look, it's fun, it's a bit kooky, it's rather engaging and I kind of unabashedly love them already. All sorts of trashy magnificence - look at the video below, they pretty much set out their stall with that one :)

A bit of culture: I sort of feel like I need something a bit tasteful on the blog after that, so imagine my joy when I found out that my beloved History Boys is touring again. For those that don't remember, I was pretty much obsessed with them back in the days of thezapping and went to see it a fair few times :) It all went quiet for the play after around late 2007, so I'm rather delighted that it's back, and although not coming to Birmingham, it's close enough by that I can persuade a few pals to drive down to see the new production with me. And just to whet my appetite is a "making of" production video from the latest cast (who should consider themselves lucky - previous cast members include Dominic Cooper, Ben Barnes, Russell Tovey, the grown up dude from Beautiful People and James Corden).

Top 21 Songs of the Week!

21 ~ RyanDan, Can't Help Falling In Love
20 ~ Leona Lewis, I Got You (NE)
19 ~ Blake Lewis, I Left My Baby For You
18 ~ Agnes, Love Love Love
17 ~ Mika, Rain
16 ~ The Saturdays, Ego
15 ~ JLS, One Shot
14 ~ Jason Mraz, Kicking With You
13 ~ Matt Morris, Money (NE)
12 ~ Marina & The Diamonds, Hollywood
11 ~ Natalie Imbruglia, Scars
10 ~ Nerina Pallot, When Did I Become Such A Bitch?
09 ~ Alexandra Burke, Broken Heels
08 ~ Dangerous Muse, I Want It All
07 ~ Alphabeat, Hole In My Heart
06 ~ Ryan Ferrada, Room 501
05 ~ Owl City, Fireflies
04 ~ Boyzone, Gave It All Away
03 ~ Elouise, Fireman Of My Dreams
02 ~ Barenaked Ladies, You Run Away
01 ~ Simon Curtis, Diablo (5 weeks)

Igår var en ödesdag i Finlands moderna Eurovisionshistoria. Skulle tramsgruppen Eläkeläiset vinna finalen såsom alla finska kvällstidningar spådde? Euroviisut i Finland blev med andra ord en gastkramande tillställning.
Vinnare i Finlands Euroviisut blev tjejduon med det omöjliga namnet Kuunkuiskaajat. Österbottniska Nina Lassander slutade som tvåa och tramsgubbarna Eläkeläiset blev trea. Tack och lov att det finns någon form av rättvisa även i detta finska sammanhang och att landet slipper bli ett Europeiskt åtlöje i Oslo.

Själv är jag givetvis besviken över att min favorit Heli Kajo inte vann men å andra sidan är jag inte förvånad. Hon skulle ha behövt lite mer tid för promotion. Däremot kommer detta att bli början för hennes karriär och jag är säker på att vi kommer att höra talas om henne framöver.

Vinnarna Kuunkuiskaajatär något av en ”dark horse” i sammanhanget och det ska bli intressant att se om duon ska fortsätta som en ”underdog” även i Oslo. Att Österbottninska Nina Lassander slutade som tvåa och slog Eläkeläiset måste ses som en bragd. Det är bara att gratulera. Nina har den mest kommerciellt gångbara låten men jag tror att Kuunkuiskaajat har en större chans i Oslo. (Nina Lassander, foto Lehtikuva)


För mig personligen så innebär det att jag trots allt kommer att vifta med finska flaggan och kan leva upp till mitt dubbla medborgarskap!

Resultatet i finalen:
1. KUUNKUSIKAJAT: "Työlkii ellää". Fick 42,0 % av rösterna
2. NINA LASSANDER: "Cider Hill". Fick 37,8 % av rösterna
3. ELÄKELÄISET: "Hulluna humpasta". Fick 20,2 % av rösterna

Följande bidrag delar fjärdeplatsen:
MARIA LUND "Sydän ymmärtää"
ANTTI KLEEMOLA "Sun puolella"
LINN "Fatal Moment"
PENTTI HIETANEN "Il mondo è qui"
HELI KAJO "Annankadun kulmassa"
AMADEUS "Anastacia"
SISTER TWISTER "Love At First Sight"
De bidrag som inte gick till superfinalen rangordnas inte sinsemellan utan presenteras här i startordning.


Source/foto: YLE

On A Mission - Gabriella Cilmi: it's so good to have her back. A top electro-pop tune based around (what sounds to me like) the Joe Jackson 'Steppin' Out' bassline.
Give It To Me - Alexander Stenerud: some Norwegian MGP-wonderful-ness. I'll be supporting him in next week's final...
Don't Wanna Lose You Again/Take You Home - A1: that's when I'm not supporting A1 of course!! And I still can't get enough of "Take You Home"...!
Never Forget/Shine/Rule The World - Take That: you can tell that I've spent some time of late watching the Take That 'Circus Live' DVD: and why not. It's fabulous.
Stay Too Long - Plan B: I like bits of this because it reminds me of Northern Soul....but other bits of this just annoy me :(
Septieme Ciel - Jane Fostin: a musical flashback to 1999, back in the day when I used to go on holiday every year to la France :))))))
Backseat - Staygold, Spank Rock and Damien Adore: 'get a job done in the parking lot....in the backseat of your car...."

Back to 1992, a year which I would be very happy to be stuck in with no escape (won't go into reasons why!!! :) ).....anyway the house-tastic "Movin'" by Marathon has been long overdue for the Retro Saturday treatment on EuropeCrazy so here it is, 18 years down the line.... still sounds very, very good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcmdJw_qlcw

Back to the early 90s again - which was personally a very memorable time for me - here's a bit of Kym Sims (whatever happened to...?) who had a big hit with "Too Blind To See It" but I liked this one so much more - "Take My Advice" which had that distinctive early 90s house sound: "she got a smile on her face and a plan in her head" - good times, ooooh yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb12KTcTIcU

Going through the Retro Saturday archive over the last 3 years it just struck me that I'd overlooked the wonderful Manics. At one point during the 1990s my life completely revolved around them, and seeing them live on their post-"Everything Must Go" tour was completely inspirational :) anyway here is "From Despair To Where" which I played today and asked myself why I hadn't played it more.....? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcb0sOZTnQ

Anyone for a bit of "Where Love Lives", then????

Voila! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_gkgRMaBc

An early 90s dance classic which we will never tire of reviving. "Tune" indeed.

Thought it was about time I resurrected the old Retro Saturday thing!

Kicking off with something I loved from around 1994: apparently Dionne Farris was originally part of the Arrested Development crew, but I didn't know anything about her till "I Know" which got a lot of radio airplay around that time and this remains one of the great-lost-hits of the mid 90s. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHsJe94TdhA

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Watts

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- "21 Grams"
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- Assassination of Nixon
- "Stay"
- "Eastern Promises"
- "The International"
- "Funny Games"
- "The Painted Veil"
- "I Heart Huckabees"
- "The Ring 2"
- "King Kong"
- "The Ring"
- "Le Divorce" (2003)
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Naomi Watts Imdb

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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0915208/

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