Take my shoes off...

Ok, the following text will be about an artist. Some of you may know the artist, and some of you won't. It's Kate Bush.
Why?
Well, on friday evening I took the train home to Austria..it was dark, raining and cold. The raindrops hit the train window and it was a quite scary and strange feeling, sitting there in the moving train rushing through the dark night. As always I was listening to my iPod and for some reason I turned on Kate Bush' CD "Hounds of Love" from 1985. I bought it some years ago when I finally decided to check out Kate's music, but I haven't listened to the cd for ages. Actually I just wanted to listen to track 1, "Running up that hill", but I kept on listening. I was in awe. I was amazed. For the first time, I really seemed to understand that whole album. Do you know that feeling?

For your information, "Hounds of Love" is considered to be Kate's best work. It includes "Running up the hill" which was voted to be one of the best pop songs of all time (the lyrics, the beat [for that time],...amazing!) and many bands covered the song (Placebo, Within Temptation,...).

It's a concept album, which means that she tells a story on the album; It's divided into two parts - the first 5 songs belong to the "Hounds of love" part, the other 7 songs belong to the "The Ninth Wave" chapter and this chapter is about a woman who is drowning.. Sounds scary, eh? And oh yes, it is... I really had goosebumps during some songs (I hope the guy next to me didn't realize it :P )

Anyway, as I said, for the first time I really understood the album and its full beauty. Before that I listened to it, liked some songs (especially the first half of the album) and never really thought about the story. Which is a shame, because that's a big part of the album. Maybe it was because I was still in awe of Kate Bush' "The Dreaming" when I bought Hounds of Love (The Dreaming is still my favourite cd...even if most people think it's too weird..I just love how she used samples and backward vocals -> check out "leave it open" for a good example..the last minute is just...wow). However, this time it was different and I could focus on the lyrics, the great production (she really used all the technologies that were available at that time...and her way of working with the panning is really cool - in this song, for example - but the youtube audio conversion destroys it :( ).

Ah, well...I guess you get my point *lol* If you're not afraid of some music from the 80s that, obviously, sounds like 80s music, go and check out Kate Bush ;)
I will end this post with the video to "Cloudbusting", another great song of that album...notice how the beat gets faster

Sorry if this posting bored you, the next one will be more exciting, I hope/promise ;)
m.

back to (blogging)life

Hej!!

Quite a while has passed since my last post...sorry for that. But I was too exhausted/uncreative/sluggish for writing a new entry...Finally, here it is ;)

Sooo, where to begin...
Work is fun, but it has been quite busy for the last few weeks, but I won't bore you with that. What's more important - some quite important decisions concerning my future have to be made in the next few weeks. It's not fun at all, since I hade making decisions ;) I don't want to write too much about it, since everything is just developing and nothing has been settled yet.

Anyway, last weekend I (finally) drove to Frankfurt to visit a good friend from my university. It was a really cool weekend and it was soooo good to see him again :)
And Frankfurt is a really nice city. Smaller than Munich, but so much cooler, imo. I don't know why, but I felt much better there than in Munich. The thing with munich is, that the city itself is quite nice. The buildings are old and nice, the streets are old and nice, the traditions are old and...well, nice...but the people are old (or young) and not so nice. And the whole atmosphere in munich is a bit weird. It's really hard to find the right words for it, but every city has a special atmosphere for me. Salzburg, for example, had a nice atmosphere, I was very comfortable there. London or Vienna, two totally different cities, have a good atmosphere too (at least for me). Ancona (Italy) was the first city I visited where I thought "oh, I want to get out of here". I don't know why, because the city is really nice and sunny...but I had such a strange feeling the whole time I was staying there. It's similar with Munich. I don't hate the city, it's just that I don't feel too comfortable here.
2 weeks ago I went downtown after work to meet a friend. I was too early (as always) so I strolled around the meeting point and that was the point when I realized that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in munich (not that I was considering it anyway, but you know...it was just one of those enlightening moments). The people that passed me, small things like the silly newspaper headlines on the newspaper stands, the terrible supermarkets, the chaotic street system, unfriendly people who shouted at passing cars...everything happened around me, and I felt like screaming. That was the point where I made the decision - I don't want to stay in Munich longer than necessary. It's just not my town.
But who knows, maybe I will change my mind. Of course, munich has some really lovely places. The "Gärtnerplatz" or the area around the Sendlinger Tor are really nice parts of Munich...but it's still Munich, even if it tries to look like some italian city.

Another thing I was thinking about on my way home today - all the people who I met in life so far. Especially old school mates. It's shocking how I lost touch with most of them. Even some really close friends from elementary school, which I considered to be my "childhood friends" - no contact at all. It's sad, but that's how life goes, I guess. There are just a few people from my school time that I'm still in touch with, but they are really good and close friends...which is good, I guess.

However, it's getting quite late and before I bore you to death with more of my "thoughts"...I better go to bed now ;)

Here are some pictures from Frankfurt/Mainhattan :)
m.

I HAVE MY ARM BACK!!!

YAYYYY!!!!
After almost 3 months with cast...here's my arm :) with a cool new scar :P

SWEDEN

Hej :)

Exactely 1 year ago I moved to Sweden... On the 17th of August 2007 I took an early flight to Karlstad. I was nervous, scared and excited and I'm so glad that I did it...
It's funny, this whole weekend seemed to be like a big "Sweden-weekend". First I went through all the pictures I took in Sweden, sorted out the best ones and ordered a printed copy of them. It wasn't an easy task because - as you can imagine - I took a lot of pictures in Sweden. I ended up ordering quite a lot of pictures - I won't mention the number, because it's too high ;)
Anyway, today I met Sina in Innsbruck (see picture) - she's a german girl who studied in Karlstad. She was my neighbour and took the same courses as me, so we were quite good friends. It was great to see her again and talk about the "good old times" in Sweden ;)

Unbelievable that it's been one year since my departure...Though I know that I wrote it many many times, I'll say it once again - I WANT TO GO BACK! And I know I'm going to...someday.

However, I have a not-so-nice souvenir from sweden - my broken arm. :P Tomorrow I will go to the hospital and I HOPE/I beg/I pray that everything will be OK. I know I shouldn't have high hopes, but somehow I hope that they will remove the cast. I have no pain, I can move my fingers (better than the last time), I feel that my arm shrinked to half the size it used to be (which is a good sign, usually ;) )...so it would be great to finally "get my arm back". The first thing I would do - take a loooong bath. I don't want to think of all the bacterias and dirt on the arm, since it's been 3 months since I cleaned it ;) eeeeew ;)
However, as I said - I don't want to put my hopes too high, I guess I will get another cast for 2-3 weeks. Anyway, as long as I don't need another surgery I'm happy...otherwise..I don't know what I will do, probably freak out and destroy the emergency room... :P

Sooo....good night :)
Manuel

Love me...kill me...thrill me

Hi everybody :)

I just came back from the cinema...this afternoon my boss asked me if I wanted to go to a preview of a TV station - they will show two episodes of new series that will start in autumn - the series were "Californiacation" (with David Duchovny) and "Dexter". I know and LOVE Dexter since I watched both seasons in Sweden and I've heard a lot of good things about Californiacation...so it didn't take me long to say YES.
And I must say...the dubbing of Dexter SUCKS. First of all, the voices sound so strange, especially if you're used to the original voice...and of course, the translation was a bit strange ("scheiße" just doesn't sound as strong as "F*ck"...). And I *think* they edited some scenes, but I'm not sure... And "Californiacation" seems like a pretty good show, I will definitely watch some more episodes (but I doubt that I will watch it on TV....). I'm shocked - about Madeline Zima's breats. The cute, funny, weird little psycho girl from "The Nanny" (yes, I'm guilty of watching/loving it) plays a maneating bitch in "Californiacation" and well..you see a lot of her ;) Totally wasted on me, instead it destroyed my picture of little "Gracie".
So, if you want to watch some good shows on TV - switch it on on the 29th of september, RTL2. Just the opening credits for Dexter are worth it ;)


Sooo, what else... I have a desk in my room! Finally! His name is "Ingo" and he has 75cm to offer :P (ohh I'm in a silly mood tonight :D )
before I write more silly and nasty things...I'm off to bed...
good night :)

edit - just found this...that made my day/night...Kylie's new video to (imo) one of the best songs on her last album... enjoy :)

I knew it was big...

...but THAT big?
What I'm talking about? A book...well, not just a book. A Comic-book. The new, super-delicious Tori Amos comic book "Comic Book Tattoo". Comics inspired by Tori Amos songs. It sounded like a really interesting idea, so I ordered the softcover version (the hardcover or the deluxe version [which is much more beautiful] is too expensive...) and wow...I have no idea how I should bring this to munich.
But well, it looks really nice...

Anyway, to my personal topic of the moment, of the last 3 months, of the year...my arm! I was at the hospital today, they made an x-ray, took the stitches out and gave me a new cast. Apparently everything's ok... I'm going back to munich today, so I can get back to work tomorrow-finally.
And this will be my first weekend in munich - I'm looking forward to going to Ikea (I NEED A TABLE!) and downtown :)
I'll keep you updated...
m.

Sweet day!

Today was a really nice day...well, it's not over yet :P

In the morning I met one of my best friends - well, that's probably a bit too much to say, because we hardly see each other. Usually we see us 2 times in 6 months, because he's busy and I'm busy... Still, I love spending time with him and whenever we meet we have a great time and never run out of topics to talk about. The same today...we had breakfast in a small bakery, went to the mall afterwards, strolled around at H&M and some other shops, went for a walk and had another drink...It was great to see him again :)
Anyway, on my way home I bought some ingredients for muffins (*yummy*) and after looking for muffin forms for many minutes, I finally managed to ask a shop assistant where I can find them...and she lead me to the rice and noodles section and - Ta-Dah - here they were. Obviously, I usually keep muffin forms next to the rice too... ;P
So I baked muffins...I must say, I liked them better when I did them in Sweden. I don't know, maybe the swedish flour is different...? ;)

However, no plans for today (except eating muffins and watching a DVD). Tomorrow my best friend has his birthday and we will go out..and I'm sure we will have a blast :)
hej då,
m.