#the latvian opera got it right though

[greencheekconure27]

One problem with the Notre Dame de Paris musical is that they made Pierre Gringoire too cool.Book! Gringoire is many things but cool is not one of them.

[borisbubbles]

ESC 2019: Preshow: #41

41. DENMARK Leonora - “Love is forever” SemiFinal 2, first half

I don’t know whether you’ve been forewarned about this year’s lack of apparent quality, but after what has proven itself to have been an incredibly TOXIC pre-show, #TelAviv2019 has ended up quite decent and possibly better than last year, in fact? The worst entries in this year aren’t nearly as evil as last year’s, just really, lame and stupid and annoying, nothing we can’t handle. 🤗

Having said that, “Love is Forever” is diabolical lol. Each time I listen to it I experience the same level of visceral nausea that I usually associate with light opera. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it is Leonora’s teeth their taste for unbearable, cloyingly sweet Love&Peace Anthems. Don’t you never ever give up CRUD!!! -- Danish people, every year.

Entry Analysis

There are plenty of evils to discuss here, so let’s start with the things I find the least (but still very much) annoying: The staging is downright infantile and borderline creepy. Why would I want to lock dead eyes with someone dressed up like a homicidal mime and who has the vocal pitch of an intoxicated fruit bat? Why is there a giant chair? Is it because the song is aimed at toddlers? The act is some sub-Nick Jr level of TRASH.

However, as bad as the act is, it pales in comparison with the composition itself. This is easily one of the worst-written songs in this decade, I think? For starters, judging by the French, Danish and German choruses (Yup, this song’s IQ-Destroying message is brought to you in FOUR!!! different languages O__O), the hook is supposed to be “Love is forever and for everyone”. However, that didn’t fit the music bar so the writers dropped the “for” and turned it into a non-sequitur :)  “love is forever, and everyone.” ‘And everyone’ fucking WHAT??? 

Another example of this song’s awful and often contradictory lyrics: 

“who are we to judge / it doesn’t take too much / only just a miracle”

 Who the fuck is responsible maudlin tripe such as this??? If some goodwill doesn’t take too much, then why is it a miracle???  It makes ZERO sense... unless the implied passive-aggressive tone is the actual intention. If lecturing others on their lack of compassion is the aim of this song, then why disguise it as a forced-cute, twee children’s show anthem? This song screams to me, the listener, that I am an ignorant child incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Any song that is built on a premise which insults the listener is flawed by design.

National Finals Corner:

You may find it shocking perhaps that I didn’t bother with following DMGP this year (or any year rly), but my friends informed me that it was shit and that Leonora was the worst possible choice available, quelle surprise. Oh Denmark. 

Having said that, I did check out the other two superfinalists. While I enjoyed the Greenlandic haggresses, I liked Sigmund even more: 

Glamboy P WISHES!! In true Danish tradition ofc, the best of the three superfinalists only made the superfinal due to juries and got like... 8% in the televote. Oh Denmark. (lol I make it appear as though I love Sigmund, but he would’ve been like... 25th on the list had he been chosen. Still better than last though :) )

Qualification Odds: Borderline (Disadvantaged)

For some godforsaken reason the bookmakers have Leonora jotted down as a qualifier and... why? As I pointed out before, “Love is forever” makes the critical mistake of insulting anyone who listens to it. WHO EVEN LIKES THIS PIECE OF SHIT SONG???

Also, it is stuck in the first half of the hardest semifinal, a half that has a plethora of other mediocre women in it. If LIF were the Latvian or Swiss entry, we wouldn’t even be DISCUSSING its qualification chances right now. 

But of course, it being the entry for Denmark, Leonora isn’t quite dead yet. 😒The presence of Scandifriends + moron countries such as Germany and Ireland that will eagerly vote for the saccharine, twee Kumbaya crust that encases up this song's condescending, dumbed-down drone of a message will ensure that Leonora has a fighting chance against all the other mediocre women in this semifinal, albeit a small one.

Projected placement: 10th-15th in the semifinal. If she qualifies, bottom 5 in the Grand Final. 

Link to the masterpost

[picturebookmakers]

Anete Melece

In this post, Anete talks about the creation of ‘The Kiosk’, a wonderful picturebook based on her award-winning animated short. Originally published in Latvian by Liels un mazs, the book is set to be published in many more languages, including Swedish, German and Korean.

Visit Anete Melece’s website

Anete: Usually films are made out of books, but in this case it was the other way around. Six years ago, I created an animated short called ‘The Kiosk’ (Virage Film, 2013), and this year a picture book version of the same story was released by Latvian publisher Liels un Mazs.

The idea of a lady who is literally stuck at her workplace came to me an even longer time ago. It was a time in my life when I felt like a potato. I had a decent job in an office, earned more money than I ever had before, and everything was kind of okay, except that I had a feeling that I was in the wrong place and that I had stopped growing. This idea didn’t leave me alone and I had to figure out a way – how to make it. I finally left the job and applied for a Masters at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – a program called Animage (Animation and Illustration).

Actually, I drew a comic about all this. You can read it in full on my website, but here’s a few pages. It’s called ‘Busy Freelancer at Work’.

During my studies in Lucerne, I worked on the development of the story for ‘The Kiosk’. First, I thought a lot about the character: Why is she stuck there and what does she actually want? To find a romantic love or maybe to change profession and become an opera singer? Finally, I came to a simple conclusion: As she is literary stuck, then all she dreams about is freedom.

Sometimes people ask me why she didn’t lose weight to get out? Because it would be very boring and the story is not about being fat; it’s about being stuck. You can move on and start a journey to your happy place exactly as you are. Right now.

To collect some ideas for the side characters and Olga’s life in the kiosk, I also did some research. I did interviews with a few kiosk sellers and even spent a day in one. Well, that kiosk was not as small as Olga’s kiosk; it was more like a little shop, where I was sitting in a corner and observing situations and sketching the people that came there.

I worked on the animation in Switzerland, where I am still living. However, the action in the film and even more in the book happens in Riga, Latvia, where I am from.

The shape of the kiosk was inspired by a real art deco style kiosk in Riga, which lately has been mostly standing unused.

After three years, the seven minute animation was finally finished. I was travelling with it to film festivals all around the world, and I realised that not only the beginning of the story was about me, but the end of it too. Just like Olga, I was travelling around with ‘The Kiosk’ and I was totally happy. But most importantly, I had found the freedom to do the things that I love.

I had never really thought about making a book of ‘The Kiosk’. Not before Roger Thorp from Thames & Hudson and Alīse Nigale from Liels un Mazs told me that it would be an idea worth considering. The considering took another three years; I was always busy doing other projects – like making a baby and becoming a mother. Meanwhile, I think I just needed some more time to find the motivation to work on a story that ‘I had already told’ again.

How to transform a film into a book? The easiest way would be to make the key screenshots and explain the missing parts with some text. Yes, if you want it to look like a lazy copy of the film, only without sound and movement.

For a while, I forgot about the animation and focused on the story itself...

I didn’t even use the existing material, like the characters and backgrounds that had already been painted for the digital cut-out technique used for the animation. I knew that if I needed a new background, it would be very hard to paint exactly like I had done six years ago, and I didn’t want it to have that cut-out look.

In the end I painted everything new, using the film as reference for the character and background design. And to slightly compensate for the lack of voices, music and movement, I tried to use the advantages of the book format – readers have more time to look at each ‘frame’ – so there are more side characters and details. A kiosk is a perfect subject (or object) for that. I also added a couple of side stories for the background characters.

Perhaps some hardcore fans of the animated version (I don’t know if they exist though) could be disappointed to see that the picture book is so different. I would like to invite people not to compare, but to simply enjoy them each in their own way.

During this whole journey, I was never alone. At the beginning, while working on the story, I got a lot of support from my university mentors, especially Ted Sieger, Jochen Ehmann and Paolo Friz. It would be impossible to finish the animation without my producer Saskia von Virág and animator Stefan Holaus. I thank the whole team of Liels un Mazs for being so supportive. And also thanks to Hans ten Doornkaat for his advice while working on the book. And last but not least, thanks to my family for their love and inspiration.

Illustrations © Anete Melece. Post edited by dPICTUS.

Buy this picturebook

Kiosks / The Kiosk

Anete Melece

Liels un mazs, Latvia, 2019

For years now, the kiosk has been Olga’s home simply because her sweet tooth and monotonous life have made her larger than the exit. To distract herself, she reads travel magazines and dreams of being far away. An absurd occurrence sets her off on her journey.

Based on Melece’s animated short which has received many awards worldwide.

Latvian: Liels un mazs

German: Atlantis Verlag (2020)

Swedish: Lilla Piratförlaget (2020)

Korean: Mirae M&B (2020)

Other languages are in negotiation

[trekwithtaylor]

Country #50 - Latvia

The Flights

Today was another crazy travel day as I set off back across the pond to visit Eastern Europe! Eastern Europe has been at the top of my bucket list for a long time so I am really looking forward to the countries on this trip, including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and flying out of Norway (I’ve been before this trip but I’m doing Bergen this time so it’s a new city for me). I also want to do Eastern Europe before it gets much colder so that I can enjoy it.

Today I flew out of Dallas on a family pass. I didn’t get business class but I did get a row to myself which was very nice. I slept about four hours and watched the new Spider Man on the plane. As far as nonstop London flights go (and I’ve flown them a bit thanks to studying abroad and prior visits) this was the first time I have flown out of Dallas, so it was probably one of my longest flights ever so far at nine hours.

After landing in London I had plenty of time to transfer to my next airport but not enough time to safely venture out and see anything. It’s not like I haven’t been to London before, so this was purely a transit visit. I landed at Heathrow where I then sat for a while and figured out my plan for the day. I decided to transfer straight to Stansted (worst airport ever, I’m sure I’ve said that before) instead of waiting around at Heathrow or going into London and risking any sort of problem.

I took the tube to Liverpool Street where I made it on the next Stansted Express train right as the doors were closing. I dislike how expensive the Stansted Express is but it gets the job done and if you don’t have time to book early it usually the same price (if not cheaper) the day of than the National Express bus coaches, and it is definitely quicker than those.

I arrived at Stansted a little over three hours before my flight. Stansted is the worst, just to remind you for a hundredth time. Their entire system encourages you to be there early, but, surprise, if you are over three hours early you can’t check your bags yet (this wasn’t a problem for me because I had no bags). I would likely never be more than three hours early (I’m usually only two for international flights) except for in transit. So it just puts passengers in an annoying hold because there is literally nowhere to sit in the Stansted main entrance.

After going through what I swear is the longest duty-free section that is impossible to skip I decided to eat at an actual restaurant since it had been a while since my last meal and I was going to be traveling the rest of the day. I decided on the Windmill because it looked cool. It’s a pub (under the Wetherspoon brand) but it felt like a restaurant other than the weird ordering system where you either had to order on an app (which I did) or go to the bar (kinda hard to leave your bags at your table as a single traveler). I got a burger that was funnily enough called the American Burger. I then had another two hours so I went and sat in the main waiting area.

So here is my main beef with Stansted. The signs will tell you, without fail, that your flight is boarding the second that it gets assigned a gate. And they also wait forever to tell you the gate so once you know you almost always feel like you need to hurry when in reality boarding hasn’t actually started but you never know when on the off chance it will. My flight today was at 4:45pm. The gate was supposed to be posted at 4pm, was actually posted around 3:50, and then the second it was posted it said that it was now boarding. After a ten minute walk to the gate, I found no boarding for another twenty minutes at least. So basically, they make you run all over for no reason and it is a problem that could easily be corrected. The exact same thing happens when they post final calls. I have run to flights in Stansted because the signs have said final call only to find that half the time boarding hasn’t even started yet.

After finally boarding I had a seat in the back of the plane. The flight was fine other than the fact that I have never in my life seen so many people stand up on a flight. Like literally there would be at least five people in lines for the bathrooms all flight long and others were congregating in groups which is against rules. Other than the annoyance of having the constantly moving passengers run into me on the aisle seat It was a good three-hour fight that I stuck to Netflix on.

When arriving in Riga, Latvia, immigration was a breeze. I then found the mini-bus (basically a bus shuttle) #222 from the airport to the center of town. Regular bus #22 is also an option. The bus dropped off right by the central train station which, luckily for me, was right across the street from my hotel, Opera Hotel & Spa! After navigating the underground crosswalks (because there are too many trams for there to be crosswalks on the street) I came up right in front of Opera Hotel & Spa. Thank you so much to Opera Hotel & Spa for sponsoring this night of my trip! Check in was simple and my room is very nice! It is clean and updated and has an absolutely perfect location for exploring Riga.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Riga tomorrow, and also to having a good night’s sleep after not getting much on the plane last night.

The East

Today was my first full day in Eastern Europe of the trip! After a late night getting in I set my alarm for 8:30, but then snoozed it until 9:30, and then somehow fell back asleep until 11am. Not ideal, but I still had enough time to see a good overview of Riga! After checking out of Opera Hotel & Spa I sat in the lobby for a bit to finish planning my day since I fell asleep before doing so last night.

I started the day with lunch at an Italian Restaurant. Lame, I know, but at every Latvian restaurant I looked up I would have just ended up getting a burger so I had some tasty lasagne instead. The walk to lunch introduced me to the Old City which is incredible. After lunch, and throughout the rest of my day, I spent a lot of time just walking around Old City. The buildings are very unique and I highly recommend spending as much time as possible walking through them.

My first stop after lunch was St. Peter's Church. St. Peter’s Church was first mentioned in official records as early as the 1200s, while the building itself is old but not nearly that old. My favorite part of the church was the observation. The student ticket was seven euro. You take an elevator to the very top for an awesome view out over all of Riga. The church itself had a really nice art exhibition on display and, while plain for a European church, it was still beautiful inside. I’m glad that the sun was out while I was on the observation deck because by the time I left St. Peter’s it had started raining.

The rain thankfully only lasted about five minutes. My next stop was the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia which was unfortunately closed. I’m looking forward to learning more about the history of the Eastern European countries, but it looks like I will have to wait until another city. The museum sits on Town Hall Square, which was, unfortunately, being renovated. The scaffolding showed how cool the square is when it is not under construction and I’m sad to have missed it!

After two very quick stops, I made my way to Riga Cathedral. When I walked in I heard what sounded like a live choir and orchestra performing. After buying my three euro ticket I found that I was lucky enough to be visiting the church during their practice! The chorus was huge and it was such a cool, but completely unexpected, moment to be able to sit and listen in such a beautiful place. After taking my time listening and then walking around the church cloister I then made my way to the Three Brothers, which are the three oldest houses in Riga. Their exteriors are very unique, especially for buildings dating from as early as the 1500s.

My walk from the Three Brothers to my next stop, Latvian National Museum of Art, was a little longer. However, I was able to walk through Bastejkalna parks, a lovely park that flows through the center of Riga. During my walk, I found some sort of kayak competition being held on the small body of water that flows through the park. I arrived at the Latvian National Museum of Art about an hour before closing time. I did the permanent exhibitions starting with the top floor, which was a super unique, all white space. The other floors were art by specifically Latvian artists. The museum wasn’t too large (though the building was grand) so I was able to do it all in about forty-five minutes.

After the museum, I headed to Alberta Iela (Albert Street), which is known for its Art Nouveau buildings. The buildings were cool but definitely did not take a lot of time to see. I walked down the street and then made my way back to the center of town. My longest walk of the day, at about fifteen minutes, took me from Alberta Iela to The Freedom Monument. The Freedom Monument stands at the start of the Old City and is a monument to the soldiers who died in the Latvian War of Independence. I then went to Riga Black Magic. It’s a super cool cafe where I had some cake and amazing hot chocolate. Latvia is the coldest country I have been to since Argentina so the hot chocolate was much needed and so good! It was the kind where you stir chocolate into warm milk which I really like. Black Magic had a really cool decor and I definitely recommend it.

After recharging on basically just chocolate I made my way back to Opera Hotel & Spa to gather my bags and head to the bus stop. The stop for the 22 or 222 bus to the airport was right down from Opera Hotel & Spa about a five-minute walk, and the bus arrived about ten minutes later. On the bus I met a British man who asked how long the bus took. We then went on to chat for a minute during which time he told me that when he hears of Alabama it makes him think of slavery or “worse things” which was not ideal to hear. Otherwise, he was really nice and wished me well on my trip, but that part of our conversation was definitely a bit awkward.

Security at the airport was simple with no lines and afterwards, I headed to my gate and found a good spot to sit. I was three and a half hours early for no reason other than that by this time it was dark in Riga and I decided to go ahead and be early. There was a Vanderbilt football game on and somehow I was able to have good enough wifi to watch over half of it. It was a horrible loss to Georgia but it gave me something to do to pass the time. Once I finally boarded the flight itself only took about thirty minutes.

When I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, there was no immigration as I was passing from one Schengen Area country to another. The Schengen Area includes twenty-six European countries that have eliminated border control for fellow Schengen Area countries. I thought about taking an Uber because it would have been about five euros cheaper than a taxi but at 12am the wait time was too long and it was raining. I took a taxi instead and the ride took about ten minutes. I had a really easy check in at my hotel, Go Hotel Shnelli, who I cannot thank enough for sponsoring two nights of my trip! My room is very comfortable and the best part is the view of the Old Town from the room.

After arriving in my room I watched a little more football before showering and going to sleep pretty late. My goal is to get up early enough to have a full day exploring Tallinn, as after day one in Eastern Europe I am really looking forward to it!

50 countries down, 147 to go.

For more information on Latvia click here to read my guide.

To learn more about Opera Hotel & Spa click here.

For more information on Estonia click here to read my guide.

To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.