Ricardo Pardini
Charlie StrossOh boy, this year the UK is—surreally—entering Sam Battle, aka Look Mum No Computer, as their contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, it's *that* Sam, who built the Furby Organ.
woe2you
slowtiger
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency
Stoneface Vimes
Aral Balkan
Andrew Deacon@cstross Well if we are going to get Nil points we might as well do it properly and thumb our nose at the whole thing.
@aadeacon He could go down in a blaze of glory but I feel he also has the potential to go the Full Lordi:
Graham Sutherland / Polynomial
jaseg@gsuberland tbh hatari is an excellent first place to replace them
@jaseg they're great. I had tickets to go see them a while back, but unfortunately the gig got cancelled 'cos of the pandemic.
FlohEinstein@FlohEinstein @cstross @aadeacon yeah, the lead singer said some really gross stuff a few years back. I was supremely disappointed.
@gsuberland @aadeacon I missed that!
Jacob Christian Munch-Andersen
Elric@cstross A living, breathing, bona fide genius who happens to be a great musician. I hope he just drags his live rig onto the stage and asks the audience which song he should play.
EMBRACE THE CHAOS.
Crowd Asked for Sweet Dreams On Modular Synth Ended Up With A Different Song
groff 🇺🇦When I first heard I had to check it wasn't April 1st. Should be glorious.
Dr David Mills@cstross fantastic!
Julien Goodwin@cstross yeah, I got to point out to some friends that my name is in the announcement photo taken in front of the megadrone. His museum is awesome, I had a brilliant day there back in October.
Zachary J. Adam@cstross For what little it counts, Sam's video in a maker secret santa where he made a multiselector-based LED sign for ThisOldTony wound up being the accidental gateway to my (very middling) entry into modular synths.
He's a very capable musician, whatever else might be said abouy Eurovision.
bfuhrman
root42
grmon
Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂
Toni Aittoniemi@cstross positive!
Ratsnake Games 🔞@cstross love that guy, and at least he'll bring some much needed originality into the compo
Stumpy The Mutt@cstross The same Sam Battle who now has an old Rolls Royce tank engine and ideas about transplanting it into a Mini!
FandaSinYou've got me on "furby organ".
That's so stupid, it's awesome!😆
Also Sam's funny.👍
THE FURBY ORGAN, A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MADE FROM FURBIES
Landa 
Nfoonf
Jyrgen N
Dubious Blur@cstross friends group uniformly disappointed in him. Perhaps he’ll urge a boycott and lead it himself? Wish I could straightforwardly root for him.
wakest likes your bugs ⁂@dubiousblur @cstross what are they disappointed by?
@dubiousblur @cstross ah thats fair, yeah I guess that would be the other option. Tho they are still trying to be a celebrity or something so I could see the the opportunity being hard to turn down
@cstross wait seriously? He's a amazing we need to support this mission!
Mark Dennehy@cstross Pffffffft. "Surreal". Come back to me when you enter a puppet turkey with a Dublin city accent.
https://eurosong-contest.fandom.com/wiki/Dustin_the_Turkey
https://www.eurovision.com/eurovision-song-contest/belgrade-2008/all-participants/dustin-the-turkey/
Dustin the Turkey
Dustin the Turkey is an Irish puppet who has had an enduring music and television career in his homeland since the late 1980s. He first appeared on the children's show "The Den" with Zig and Zag and remained there until the show ended, outlasting four human co-hosts. He was selected to represent his home country in the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, becoming the first puppet to represent any country in the Contest's history. Despite it being a public vote, there was a mixed reaction from the live...
mossman@markdennehy @cstross NO - JUST... NO!
@markdennehy @cstross it was utterly unfunny eye rolling crap. Annoyed the hell out of me. Not witty or clever or amusing or ... anything really
Mike Hartwell@cstross Do you honestly think an electric keyboard and factory built stuffed dolls did not involve a computer.
@Oldmikie It's the name of his band. Read for context!
@cstross I read the context. I got the irony, I was commenting on the hypocrisy
@Oldmikie IMO boycotting Eurovision over Israeli participation isn't a job for the artists, it's a job for the national television affiliates. The UK isn't doing that: shame on the BBC and the British government, but it's harsh to place all the responsibility for a corporate decision on a self-employed artist *who isn't particularly prominent at this point*. You're expecting him to turn down his big break as a gesture of political solidarity, even though someone else is in the queue behind him.
SkjeggtrollWell, in that case, Sweden should send Mattias Krantz:
Gun piano should be illegal
Frau mit Fahrrad 🚴🏼♀️
John
Eleanor Saitta
AskPippa🇨🇦@cstross That set-up just looks like trouble -- if someone spills water on the cute little Grem... I mean Furbys.
Lumanesence! 
@cstross furbs