Blog 4.0

I remember being somewhat into the Eurovision Song Contest for a while in my teens. Love Shine A Light (the 1997 winning song from the UK) was played on Austrian radio for ages, and I was fourteen at the time. In 2000, I distinctly remember watching the event with the TV muted and the radio tuned in to a sarcy commentary show that was just making fun of everything. It already seemed like a crazy over-the-top show back then, though the winning song that year, Fly On The Wings Of Love , was just two middle-aged Danish dudes playing their guitars. The next time I remember paying attention to the event wasn't until 2014, when I had just started my job at my current employer, and Austria won the competition with a drag queen performing what sounded like a song straight out of a James Bond movie . Being the only Austrian in the office, I was naturally congratulated on "my" victory. When I looked up the song to know what everyone was talking about, I was mostly baffled.  Fast f...

I don't really like talking about religion nowadays since I've become an atheist for all intents and purposes, just not of the kind who enjoys telling everyone else about it. I have no problem with other people finding meaning, community and comfort in religion either. It's just not for me. I was however raised in the Roman-catholic church and never formally left it, so every now and then something related to that will still make my ears perk up. Such as the pope dying and a new one being elected. Oh the memes I saw on the subject... amazing (and yet never disrespectful, interestingly enough). I'm currently visiting my mother in Austria and she was switching TV channels yesterday just as the white smoke appeared, so we stayed on that channel to watch. I honestly thought it was hilarious how much the whole hubbub resembled a giant football event. They showed some people chanting "habemus papam" to the same tune to which they'd diss their football opponents ...