My career as a Eurovision pundit

I am a few entries into my stint as a commentator on an enjoyable UK Eurovision blog.

It's a long story, but I hope the young proprietors' trust in my critical discernment is not misplaced.

I feel somewhat like I imagine Dennis Miller might have felt when he took his Monday Night Football gig. Do non-Americans know Miller? This was a hilarious chapter in broadcasting history -- Monday night is ordinarily the rowdy province of such philosophers as the late Howard Cosell ("see that monkey run"). But Miller, who was, I think, in earnest, either saw something that wasn't there on the field (like the French Revolution, say) or saw something that the rest of us didn't see.

Of course I don't have Miller's erudition.

A couple days ago I watched a neighbouring country's Eurovision entry. It left me shaking my head with dismay. It was the most overwrought, soulless thing I have ever seen, delivered in a bad accent. I would watch Sanjaya (who was not this weak), I would watch Kristjan, or Viljandi's own torch song god Timothy Jarman on Estonian Idol much more gladly.

I tried to come up with something semi-charitable to write, and initially I could only produce: "T--- ma ei või". 3x.

Which oddly enough, I think, was actually also a Kreisiraadio line.

OK, "the night was dark and stormy." P---, kui piinlik.

Some people produce weighty tomes on Kalmykistan's latest entry (I could read writing like this for hours). It's like watching Greil Marcus deconstruct a particularly laden Dylan verse.

It makes me feel like I am really missing something in most songs.

Hopefully I do have some sort of sensibility for Northeastern Europe perspective (?) and I can bring it to bear on the blog in a readable way.