#he kind of *does* want vel to worry but not to *that* extent

[voxaholic]

Valentino has a habit of occasionally just fucking disappearing off the face of Hell, usually for no more than a few days, but sometimes for weeks. It's annoying because obviously, he's leaving her to deal with Vox, but it's equally concerning because one of these days he's just going to get himself actually killed and it's not clear if she'll even be able to find out what happened to him.

For that reason alone, Velvette really wishes she had access to Vox's personalized Val tracking system (aka, access to all security cameras in the seediest areas of pride), because of course that was something he had, but even then, in their weird romantic(?) game of cat and mouse, Val is just really good at not being found when he doesn't want to.

Vox built all his technology (the grid, his spy networks, the company's computer systems) with himself in mind. He didn't design them with a successor in mind– doing such a thing would mean admitting his own mortality and he was 100% petty enough to want to make anyone who may one day overthrow him's job as difficult as possible. There are certain things that simply don't work without him or require someone with a similar power set as him in order to function.

Velvette received quite a sizable boost to her power after Vox transferred his souls to her and is now better at manipulating technology than she's ever been, but she just isn't Vox. She can't run systems built specifically for him as well as he could. She tries to build new ones, but everything is interwoven so tightly that it's incredibly difficult to get rid of one thing without breaking a dozen others. Vox did a great job at weaving himself into every little bit of Hell's technological infrastructure and it's driving Velvette insane.

[hatari-translations]

I’ve been asked to translate this pre-ESC interview, which is pretty interesting! Since it’s eight minutes long and a lot of text, I’m not going to transcribe the whole thing, just translate/summarize what is said in the same vein as my translation of the People Behind the Costumes documentary.

Dramatis personae

The other people with Hatari in the interview there are:

- The host is Gísli Marteinn Baldursson, long-time talk show host. He’s also been RÚV’s Eurovision commentator for a good few years now.

- Bjarni Benediktsson (usually nicknamed Bjarni Ben), finance minister. Yes, the same one whose baking ad they were parodying that one time. Yes, he’s still finance minister. No, actually, after the 2016 election he was prime minister for a bit, until that government imploded because of more scandals, and after that election we just didn’t have a government for a while as none of the possible complicated multi-party coalitions worked out, until the Left-Green movement sold their souls to get together with the Independence Party and he got to be finance minister again. Independence Party voters are distressingly loyal and also like 20-25% of the country for some reason.

- Brynhildur Guðjónsdóttir, actress.

- Salka Sól Eyfeld, actress.

(I don’t watch this show, so I have no idea why on earth this is the combination of people he had on that night.)

English translation

The video starts with Gísli Marteinn interrupting something to introduce new guests, and explaining that this is being taped in advance because by the time it’s aired Hatari are going to be on their way to Tel Aviv. He introduces them as “the joy and pop band Hatari, or the dystopian electronica band Hatari”. Matthías, Klemens and Einar walk in with bottles of SodaDream that they offer to everyone, and Einar very deliberately squeezes in next to Bjarni Ben instead of with the rest of the band.

Everyone expresses their delight at getting to try SodaDream, and Klemens suggests a toast. Gísli Marteinn expresses his wishes for them to do well abroad, Bjarni Ben agrees.

Gísli Marteinn: “Welcome home, Einar, from the tour with Vök! Did that all go well?”

Einar stares silently into the camera.

Gísli Marteinn: “Right, Einar... he’ll just go over that later.”

Matthías: “He’s being punished.”

Gísli Marteinn is amused, then goes over how now it’s all about Hatari, a wonderful band, who won Söngvakeppnin and is currently working on bringing down capitalism. “How’s that going?”

Matthías: “It’s going well. Of course we have the loyal support of voters and our sponsors, and listeners, so we believe that as the momentum builds, we will succeed.”

Klemens agrees that they’ve built a lot of support and they’re planning to build up more; Matthías says they’re very flattered and touched by what they’ve achieved.

Gísli Marteinn: “Well, when you’ve gotten the finance minister himself on board with your anticapitalism, victory is clearly in sight.”

Matthías: “Yes. It’s basically in the bag.”

Gísli Marteinn goes over how they’re heading off soon and there’s a lot of interest in Hatari. “Are you feeling any stage fright? You know you’ll be followed everywhere out there, and everyone wants you to do something really brilliant and clever, do something, say something...”

Matthías: “Sure. Well, stage fright we can deal with. It’s more the tension over how this contest is being held where it is. The contest is a beautiful thing, in that it’s about peace and unity, but it’s being held in a country marred with conflict and disunity. And we said we’d use our agenda-setting powers to put those issues on the agenda, and that’s quite a project.”

Gísli Marteinn: “So are you sticking with... do you have a plan for how you’re going to do that?”

Matthías: “Well, plans A, B, C and D. I change my mind on which daily, but yeah. Yeah. It’s all according to plan.”

Klemens: “Of course, we get all our answers sent to us from Svikamylla ehf. every day, so we just take it day by day.”

Gísli Marteinn. “Right. But this is a massive affair, I mean, you’re bringing an entire media organization with you, Icelandic [sic] Music News.”

Matthías: “Very true. The most honest news organization in the country.”

Gísli Marteinn: “It’s wonderful. Very honest. They really prioritize honesty.”

Matthías: “Yes.”

Klemens: “...in the history of Iceland.”

Matthías: “Trust and courage.”

Gísli Marteinn talks about the costumes, and Matthías explains about the collaboration with creative studio Döðlur. Gísli Marteinn says Einar is there “all fired up” (it’s a bit hard to translate this phrase, “í miklu stuði”, which is literally more like “in a great mood” but really here means something more like oh, yeah, he’s doing exactly what he does best, awesomely). Klemens thanks SodaDream for sponsoring them.

Brynhildur says it’s very good sparkling water, but still kind of disappointing. Salka asks “Because it’s not champagne?” Brynhildur points out that no, it’s in the ingredients, and Matthías confirms: “Oh, yes, it’s carbonated water and disappointment.”

Gísli Marteinn goes over how we know 90% of the nation will be watching them compete in the semifinals (Icelanders are very passionate about Eurovision), hoping they’ll qualify, and asks if they’re as preoccupied with how they do.

Matthías: “How we do is important, but the other thing [i.e. putting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the agenda] is more significant. We didn’t necessarily expect to get this far, and we don’t really know to what extent we could hope for victory, and haven’t really known that from the start. We’ve tried to use our agenda-setting powers, as we keep repeating, but we just wanted to ask - well, we hope people at home will ask themselves, and I’d not least like to ask all of you here, not least you, Bjarni, being in the government - about these issues, don’t you think it’s right to go out there and put these issues on the agenda, and recognize Palestine as an independent state? We are, after all, one of the countries who do so, and I’m proud of that.”

Gísli Marteinn: “Right. We’re one of few nations who recognize both, aren’t we? Well, what do you say on the couch?”

Bjarni: “Well, I think there’s no question that we should participate, and I personally always believe in dialogue, and I don’t believe in exclusion and burning bridges...”

Matthías: “Do you think Palestine should be recognized as a state?”

Bjarni: “That, on the other hand, is an entirely different issue, and I passed on that vote when that happened. It’s a process that’s had a very long buildup, but it was handled by parliament, and...”

Gísli Marteinn: “Well, the official policy of the Icelandic government is...”

Bjarni: “...a two-state solution, yes. But it’s very important to have peace on both sides of that border, and in recent years we’ve often discussed Israel and Palestine in parliament, and I think the location of the contest this year should absolutely not prevent Iceland’s participation. I think that’s ridiculous.”

(I think Einar is staring extra-hard into the camera throughout all this.)

Gísli Marteinn asks the actresses if they were on the boycott wagon. Salka says she never really formed an opinion, but she heard out both sides, and she’s very happy with Hatari’s act and was rooting for them from day one; she’s not worried about them out there and thinks they’ll make the Icelandic nation proud, and she hopes they’ll let their voices be heard.

Brynhildur: “We’re sending well-educated, well-informed and beautiful young people who know exactly what they’re doing.”

Salka: “I trust them 100%.”

Gísli Marteinn starts trying to wrap things up, and Klemens interrupts for some closing words: “Shouldn’t we clarify the message of our song a bit? We consider it to be a dystopia, and it’s a contemplation on power and powerlessness, hope and hopelessness, and if we don’t come together and forget to love, then hate will prevail. And that’s a message that should be heard in Israel and Palestine, as well as elsewhere in the world.”

I think this was pretty brilliant, because honestly I had no idea that Bjarni Ben was reluctant to recognize Palestinian statehood but Hatari sure just used their agenda-setting powers in this talk show interview to establish this for everyone watching.