I recently spent Christmas and New Year in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
Christmas in hot climates is pretty surreal, seeing decorations in sweltering sunshine or against bright blue skies.
Christmas lights and decorations vary from pretty and good to ridiculous and tacky. Overall though, for us in Europe, they light or cheer up the darkest time of the year and bring a little glitter to the gloom.
Not so in the southern summer, but they were rather entertaining and fun for me to see how Christmas traditions translate in different climates.
My favourite sight - which I saw from a car so no time to photograph - was of a Christmas tree on a beach, made of clear and green discarded plastic bottles.
I've recently been to Brazil, visiting Iguaçu Falls and Rio de Janeiro. It was a trip of superb landscapes and vistas.
Iguaçu Falls are vast, a huge grouping if massive waterfalls straddling the Brazil-Argentina border.
The view from Brazil is vast, showing their huge extent, their overall force and revealing rainbows. On the Argentina side, you can get closer, sensing their overwhelming power and speed.
In Rio, vistas are equally beautiful, showing all the city's famous places: the beautiful beaches at Copacabana and Ipanema, Sugarloaf Mountain and everything in between.
Rio seems studded with forested hills, as though they recently sprouted up within the city (of course it was the other way round).
The Christ the Redeemer statue looks down on the city, not looming over it, more neatly perched like a parakeet.
I recently took part in World Song Festival, an online competition much like Eurovision. Songs are sent from countries around the world, we listen, we judge and a winner is chosen. I liked the idea so much that I decided to help the organiser, Trond from Norway, by designing a website for the competition.
The overall winner was the very, very excellent electro-pop song Gabriel by French singer Najoua Belyzel. The song was a hit in France, going to number 3 in the charts. In 2006, Najoua released her debut album Entre deux mondes, which debuted at 7 on the French charts, and apparently will be promoting herself across Europe in 2007. Ace.
Gabriel is a fantastic electro-ish number with vaguely ethereal, moaning vocals and a grinding chorus which sounds great with its French vocals. The high-point is the ace apres-chorus electrofied break-down.
There were some other ace songs in the festival, here are some of my favourites.
It would be so wrong if I didn't pick the Swede. Nanne Grönvall, the ace rocky schlager star is just great. Having re-invented her look and image more times than I've had haircuts, her latest look says 'big hair, small lady'.
That small lady totters around on high, high heels, wears skimpy floaty dresses, and kicks and struts with aplomb. She was ROBBED of Melodifestivalen in 2005 with Håll Om Mig, a performance made super-ace by having wind machines ON STAGE. Amazing. She'll be in Melodifestivalen this year with the hopefully bombastic + poptastic Jag måste kyssa dig (I Must Kiss You).
Coming 12th in WSF, Om du var min starts with the stock schlager slow-start, kicks in a beat, and builds to a pumping chorus. Nanne likes a guitar sound, Nanne likes to rock out in a twirling style.
From Japan, Nami Tamaki's Reason is J-Pop brilliance.
There's a wall of immense sound, parts pop, parts electro and part super-cute Japanese style. The song builds with booms and explosions to its chorus which is an even bigger sound that can barely contain itself for the breakdown. And you just know that the slow parts are just breathers, waiting to give way to even more top pop explosions. As with so many J-Pop stars, Nami Tamaki has released many albums and singles in Japan. This one reached 2nd on the Oricon Charts. It came 6th in WSF.
Elefante are a Mexican band who perform fairly standard Latin rock. I liked their song Mentirosa, simply because it was great Latin pop. It does exactly what you want - has a great catchy chorus, lovely Spanish sounding guitars and harmonies. Elefante seem to be fairly successful in Mexico, with a number of albums and a greatest hits to their name. In WSF, they finished in 36th position.
Jorge Rojas' Busca en tu corazon is 100% pure cheesy, and I can't help but love it. Jorge is Argentinian, and released his debut album there in 2005, from which this song comes. Busca en tu corazon is a deeply heartfelt up-tempo ballad with panpipes, latin guitars and so much pleading with a rousing chorus. It's a real lighters-in-the-air, swaying from side-to-side song and has wonderfully implausible lyrics like "look in your heart if you want to find the road to follow to discover the truth". Fantastic. It was 20th in WSF.
Finally, Dilnaz Akhmadieva is a popstar from Kazakhstan. I always knew there'd be more to Kazakhstan than Borat!
Dilnaz sings in the Uyghur language, and has been singing for years, even though she's only about 20. This song, Zolotoy, Zolotoy which could mean Golden, golden is ace. It's got a eastern, ethno-tribal sound mixed with some electro strains and beats.
If Kazakhstan ever want to be in Eurovision, sign her up now. It finished 23rd in WSF.
So Desperate Housewives is back and you can still drive trucks through the huge plot-holes in the show. Maybe we'd be better off in Argentina where a local version of Desperate Housewives launched last year. Rather than having Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria etc. on their screens, Argentinian TV has re-shot and filmed the show with a whole new cast. These ladies are the new Housewives.
I'm particularly loving the Bree character who, in Argentina, is called Vera. Look at how delightfully prim and proper she is.
Of course, we all want to see the gardener, and who am I to disappoint? Hello Rodrigo Guirao.
