Of Song Contests…
So! Tonight is Melodifestivalen! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, which is most of you, I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.

For over 50 years the countries of Europe (started with some. now it’s most countries) have taken part in a song contest called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each country sends an artist or group of theirs to sing a song. It’s a big show that happens every year in May. People watch and vote for who they want to win (can’t vote for own country). The winning country gets to host the following year’s events. Lather Rinse Repeat.

Some countries see it all as a big joke. Some countries take it very seriously. Sweden is one of these countries. In order to choose who is going to represtn Sweden, we have Melodifestivalen, the contest to choose who will win. Melodifestivalen goes on for 6 Saturdays in Feb and March. Four weeks are spent choosing who will go to the final, and who will go to a “second chance” semi-final. The 5th week is the semi final. The sixth week is the final. And that final is TONIGHT. And it’s a huge thing!

Now, I enjoy Melodifestival and Eurovision because they are fun to watch. The music is mostly based on a style called “schlager.” It’s not really anything anyone living outside of Europe could imagine. But it’s just exciting to watch and I’m a HUGE Melodifestivalen/Eurovision fanatic.

Tonight I will be voting for who I want to represent Sweden. I’m voting for two out of the 10 finalists. BWO, who’ve I’ve drawn in the illustration above. From left to right, Marina Schiptjenko, Martin Rolinski, and Alexander Bard who’s holding a laptop (electro pop stuff). I’m also voting for Charlotte Perrelli. I really like both songs and wouldn’t mind if either won. But I’m leaning more towards BWO (video here) even though I think Perrelli (video here) will win. And then maybe, for once, I could be proud of what Sweden sends to Eurovision!

The only thing that sucks is that when tonight is over, it’s still 2 months until Eurovision. GAH!

UPDATE – This is a spoiler, Leslie: Charlotte Perrelli won!!! SHE WON!!!!! HURRAH! I really wanted BWO to win, but she was my 2nd choice! I REALLY hope Sweden will qualify for Eurovision now! We must! The song is GOOD!

Of Web Habits…

I’ve been reworking my web habits lately. When I started my comic, which is going really well I might add, I decided I needed to rethink my web-related hobbies and get my priorities straight. A lot of the things I was doing weren’t making me happy any more. And my web stuff is my hobby, and hobbies should make people happy. So I shut down a lot of my websites and basically only have this one left. I also stepped back from the web design. It’s a big part of me and it’s something I’ve worked for so many years on, but working with it at the school just burned me out. I need to shake all that off and start fresh, but not without taking a break.

So, the comic is going great and it makes me really happy. Really happy. Because of this, I’ve really decided to put as much energy as possible into it. Closing all my websites helped. Now I’m reanalyzing how I “waste my time” on the web. I use Facebook and am pretty into it. But I’m now allowing it to be my only time waster online. I’ve left some community sites and forums that do me absolutely no good. Today I left a big one which has been a bit of a crutch for me since moving to Sweden. It’s a bit sad to leave it but freeing at the same time.

So illoluv has become my main focus. And I’m excited about it. My comic is taking up a lot of my creativity, and I end up drawing only for that. I need to draw other things. But that’s the purpose of this blog. To illustrate every post in some way. Whether it be for Illustration Friday, or just to illustrate what I write.

It’s a new “me” on the web and I feel really good about it. Because if I don’t make myself be productive in some way often, I start to feel like a big ‘ole NOTHING.

Written by Irma | Posted in Daylife, Music, The Artist, Website

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