The Men of Copenhagen 2014

Well since last year’s “Men of Malmö” posts (part 1 and part 2) were so successful, I thought why not do it all over again?

Hmm… well it’s a good idea in principle, but where are all the guys? Seriously this is a year quite light on guys – with a few notable exceptions of course. I’ll have to dip into the national finals though!

For reviews of ALL the competing entries in the 2014 contest, as well as coverage of all the national finals and all sorts of other news, please visit my Copenhagen 2014 Hub by clicking the link, or the “Copenhagen 2014″ menu on the top banner, or the “#Joinus” crystal on the left-hand bar.

Click to enlarge the photos from the thumbnails.

SEBalter – Switzerland

Twin Twin – France

András Kállay-Saunders – Hungary

TEO – Belarus

Freaky Fortune & Risky Kidd – Greece

Conchita Wurst (untucked) – Austria

Softengine – Finland

Firelight – Malta

Emmelie de Forest’s “Rainmaker” dancers (Opening song)

Pilou Asbæk – Eurovision host

Anton Ewald – Sweden (Melodifestivalen finalist)

Linus Svenning – Sweden (Melodifestivalen finalist)

Joshua Standing – Finland (Finalist)

Jorge Gonzalez – Spain (Finalist)

Vaidas Baumila – Lithuania (Finalist)

Markus Riva – Latvia (Finalist)

Max Barkish – Ukraine (Finalist)

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The Men of Malmö 2013 – Part 2

Oh now how can you say I don’t give you what you want? After all the effort I spend writing posts on this blog, all most of you want to do is look at mucky pictures of singers. And why not? I don’t hold it against you, I might go and do that right now. But first, in honour of the first Men of Malmö post, here’s a second portion. I fear I used most of the best ones on the first post, so look at that too! I’ve got loads of the Baku guys too, if you’re good…

There’s also a 2014 remix – The Men of Copenhagen!

Film: “Kick Ass 2” (2013)

I think I enjoyed “Kick Ass”. It wasn’t that long ago, but weirdly I can’t really remember much about it, except the violence. I honestly thought I had been de-sensitised by overdosing on gory slasher movies. Maybe it was more convincing, but I was surprised at how flinchy I was. Either way, it was pretty good.

“Kick Ass 2” picks up where that left off, as we rejoin our two heroes Dave & Mindy, aka Kick Ass & Hit Girl, both in retirement. Mindy’s retirement and struggle to have a normal childhood are imposed on her, and she grudgingly accepts this out of respect for her guardian. Dave on the other hand, backed away after the intense violence of the previous film’s plot, but is soon feeling reckless and wants to participate in the superhero movement that he started.

The clash between Dave & Mindy leads them on largely separate plots, despite them going to the same school. It feels like a bit of a waste, as it leaves Dave’s plot all the less engaging without her. Dave joins a crime-fighting force of heroes, led by the polite but ultra-violent Colonel Stars & Stripes.

Film: “Pacific Rim” (2013)

Stop giggling at the back, there’s nothing funny about the title. Well maybe. But then again maybe it’s intentional, because I can’t imagine all of the forehead-slapping moments in this film were unintentionally funny. Let’s not get stuck on the debatably negative though, “Pacific Rim” was a lot better than I was expecting.

Not a big ask really, still reeling from a third (I think) helping of Transformers. I had this down as a meat-headed rocket-fisted popcorn beat-em-up. Half right.

The setting, in the indeterminate future, is that a ‘breach’ has opened in a deep Pacific trench, and periodically these huge monsters clamber through and start smashing shit up. After a difficult first stand-off, the world unites (it was that easy, after all) and collaborates on the creation of equally massive fighting robots to punch their alien faces to custard.

The Megazords are too much for one person to handle without excessive nosebleeds (movie shorthand for “you’re going to die”), so a two-player mode is created. It’s not as easy as one arm per player though, they need to be synced up – being related helps, or failing that just being totally hot for each other.

600th post: Thank you! / ありがとうございました！

What an unexpected day it’s been!! My day has been really crappy actually, and I was really fed up until I logged into my WordPress app and saw I’d gone viral suddenly!

The cause seems to be my review of Perfume’s first gig in the UK which today was picked up by (I guess) a fan news site. I can’t really understand the comments on the sites I found it on, but I’m very happy that people seem to be interested. Hopefully they aren’t all saying “What a moron” in Japanese… though someone from Chicago helpfully left a comment to that effect on the thread. Seriously?

Anyway, I hope people carry on reading, I’m having the depressing post-Eurovision decline, where all my graphs are going down, but I have to still be grateful for all the views I’ve received. We aren’t even at the 2nd anniversary yet, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be so close to 100,000 views. In fact even in April this year I dared to dream that I might reach 50,000 by the end of Eurovision season (I was on 42,000 at that point).