Hallelujah

-
My daughter has alas now stopped watching Strictly Come Dancing with me, as all her friends watch X Factor. So, after SCD had finished (I have my priorities right) I watched the X Factor final with her - not something I think I'll repeat. Is it obligatory for everyone to cry? And did no-one think it might have been kinder to point out to Eoghan that he had a few tuning issues? The whole experience felt quite unreal - I felt as though I was sitting in a swirling sea of souped up emotion. I did wonder quite why everything felt so hyper. Is it because the contestants are living the only dream that most of the audience have, in which case I can see why things were so fervid; though it's a dreadful comment on British society if the only thing most of our young have to look forward to is the dim possibility of appearing on X Factor - one which will rapidly recede as soon as they're past their mid twenties, and what then?

I do hope whoever made the decision to parade a freak show of the worst auditionees has been taken into a corner and quietly sacked. Tours of Bedlam obviously aren't as far away as they should be from our national psyche, alas.

I just hope that the final wasn't the best day of her life for the girl who won - one would hope life retains a few more good things for her, though as far as having a successful life as a singer goes, the omens aren't good. Most of the winners appear to have sunk without trace.

So, I feel bad about mentioning the campaign to get Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah as the Christmas number one, rather than Alexandra's. Poor child; I don't like to blight her dream, and it's hardly her fault that the show's producers have made her sing it, but the Jeff Buckley version is so far beyond hers. Here it is:


Comments

Juliet said…
Mercifully, despite near-universal X-factor mania, we remain a strictly Strictly family here. Needless to say, my kids thought that the winning X-factor song was merely a cover of a tune from Shrek, so I have been putting them right on that and they have conceded, without any strenuous prompting from me, that the Jeff Buckley version is by far the greatest(yes, I know, and my apologies to LC devotees), and it's that version which has been blaring from bedrooms for the past couple of days. Hallelujah!
18 December 2008 at 10:28
Unknown said…
I've been glued to Strictly, and barely glanced at X Factor this year - not that I've ever been a regular viewer. I dislike the way everyone is prompted to have a 'story', with maximum tears, and the endless whining about how this has been their lifelong dream, and how the 17 year old competitor's life will end if they get kicked off. No, it won't alter the fate of nations, dammit !
I suspected the girl might win, as her style of exaggerated singing, a la Whitney Houston, remains unaccountably popular.

I'm looking forward to the Strictly Final though. Can't help thinking of it as The Twinkly Aberration since Jane used the phrase in a previous post.
18 December 2008 at 14:03
Jane Badger said…
Juliet - daughter knew it as the Shrek one too - funny how their cultural references change - but it turned out son had downloaded it long ago, and had completely missed the fact it was in Shrek.

Gillian - I wish it had been me who had said it was The Twinkly Aberration but it wasn't (at least, I don't think it was.... I'm sure I'd have had a little mental preen if I'd thought it up!) I do agree with your point about the hyping up. I'm sure it does make for "better" television, but kind it ain't.
18 December 2008 at 15:32
Unknown said…
Jane - I found the quote in your entry from 11th october:

"Shall look forward to another bout of Kierkegaard after Strictly Come Dancing. I love, love, love this (and I LOVE Don Warrington), The world seems to divide into two camps here: those who absolutely see the point, and those who think it is a strange, twinkly aberration."

Twinkly final tomorrow !
19 December 2008 at 17:39
Jane Badger said…
Gillian - well goodness me! I hope I never have to do an exam on what I've written, or I'll fail. I know it's the final tomorrow, but, gasp, I won't be in to see it because I'm going to Olympia.....
19 December 2008 at 23:13
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more