Sanremo, 2007

Friday, March 9, 2007

Five nights of San Remo! AAARRRRRRRGH!!!

Only the Italians could imagine spreading a song contest over five nights, twenty hours of prime time television. Sometimes the chattering banter, clumsy joking, and boorish comedians were hard to take, sometimes the maudlin tributes and egomaniacal living legends were hard to swallow, and sometimes the singing was absolutely abyssmal. I really thought it was hopeless, but I saved it all anyway on my TV machine for later recording onto DVD. Later, when I selected only the stuff I liked for recording, I ran out of room on my 4 hour DVD: to my profound surprise, there were more than four hours of really good music in that tacky carnival! It is a shame that no one at San Remo has ever heard the expression “Less is more”, because if people were able to access the good stuff without having to sit through hours of loudmouth Michelle, pot bellied buffoonish comics and disoriented anglophone guests, they might better appreciate what a great show San Remo can be.