Music...

It's quite late...and I'm sitting in front of my laptop - quite tired, but I don't feel like going to bed. Instead I'm listening to some new music and I realized one thing - it seems 2009 will be the year of Electro-Disco-Pop. Mark my words and remember those names: Frankmusik. Little Boots. La Roux. Lady Gaga. Well, Lady Gaga (gosh, that name is bad, especially if you're from a country were "gaga" is a childish expression for poop) is quite successful already, but my favourites are Frankmusik and Little Boots. Both of them are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
Frankmusik's "Three Little Words" blew me away the first time I heard it in august (a demo version). Stuart Price (of Zoot Woman; he produced Madonna and, lately, The Killers) produced Frankmusik's debut album, so I'm quite sure that it will me massive... And a guy who dances on a giant piano in his video has to be good ;) And his other songs are great too... I'm in love with his music right now (When you're around, Made her smile, In Step,...great!!)

Little Boots is a cool girl from England and she was involved in the Dead Disco project and made some homemade youtube videos (mostly cover versions of various songs). So far I've heard three of her own songs - Meddle , Every little earthquake and Stuck on Repeat, all of them are absolutely brilliant! Stuck on repeat sounds like Kylie Minogue, Róisín Murphy and Björk mixed together in an amazing shiny disco-ball dance track. Probably the first single of her album will be "Every little earthquake" which doesn't sound like Stuck on repeat at all...still, it's a very good song :)

Well, and La Roux seems interesting, I haven't heard a lot of her stuff, but I like what I've heard so far (check out Quicksand, her first single).
And Lady Gaga (goooosh, that name!) is quite popular with "Just Dance" or "Poker Face"...I'm still not sure whether to like her or not... Some of her songs are really catchy and good, other's are a bit boring... But she's fierce and has a great attitude, as you can see in this video.

Anyway, I'm sure there are a lot of other great bands/artists having their break-through in 2009, but I just think that 2009 really seems to be full of electronic dance pop music...but probably that's just because I like this kind of music...

Other than that 2009 promises to be a very exciting year in music - apart from those Newcomers Patrick Wolf, Tori Amos...and hopefully the Scissor Sisters will release an album...and some other artists I like will release a new album too (and I really hope that the Hidden Cameras will release a new album...)
Sooo, that's just random babbling...sorry about the lack of private details, I promise that I will write more interesting stuff the next time....
I'm going to bed now, otherwise I will write more dumb and boring stuff...good night,

m.

to say good night - Meddle from Little Boots

2008

Hey everybody!
It's been a long time since my last post - sorry for that. Quite a lot of stuff has happened, but somehow I didn't feel like writing anything about it. I guess it was because I had so much to do at work that I was rather glad when I had some time for myself.
Anyway, 2008 is coming to an end...and what a year it was! Some pretty exciting stuff has happened - Sweden, 2 amazing Rufus Wainwright concerts in Stockholm, I broke my arm, Hong came to Austria, I found an internship, moved to munich, started working, went to the Oktoberfest...and much much more has happened.
I think it's really nice to think about 2008 and all the things that have happened in my life and the life of dear friends...
And, I also enjoy thinking about all the great music that was released in 2008. A friend of mine said that 2008 was a pretty bad year in music, since only a few really good CDs were released. I don't think so - Portishead, Alanis Morissette, Hot Chip...all of them released new albums and a lot of new bands appeared on the music scene and quite a lot of them had very strong and good debut albums.
So, I know it's not very original, since everybody who has blog seems to write about their top 10 of 2008 :P Anyway, here are my favourite tracks/bands of 2008 - no special order:

Hot Chip - Ready for the floor
Such a fun song! The whole CD is great, definitely on of my favourite bands of 2008!

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
They are cool but somehow nerdy and make great music...it was the perfect album to chill in the summer sun.

Alanis Morissette - Versions of Violence
I was so looking forward to her new album, but I was a bit disappointed in the end. But there are some really good songs on it and this is one of my favourites.

Sigur Rós - Ara bâtur
I fell in love with them in 2008. Nothing more to say.

The Ting Tings - That's not my name
Another song/band that's so much fun! I don't know how many times I screamed and danced to this song in 2008.

MGMT - Kids
Psychodelic music.

Portishead - The Rip
Although their new CD is quite different from anything they did before, I really like it. Let's hope that we don't have to wait another 10 years for a new album.

Frankmusik - 3 Little Words
I love this song! And I'm really looking forward to his album in 2009 :)

Amanda Palmer - Leeds United
This woman is a genius! Her lyrics are amazing, her videos are great and she's just a very amazing person.

Hercules & Love Affair - Blind
Genius! To mix Housebeats with Antony's (from Antony & the Johnsons) vocals works great! Definitely one of the most interesting albums of 2008.

Sam Sparro - Black & Gold
One of my personal "heros" of 2008. I like his CD, though there are some weak songs on it..but all in all it's a really good debut. And he has a great voice (and well, he's quite good looking :P )

Jay Brannan - At first sight
I've been following his "career" on youtube every since I watched "Shortbus" for the first time. In 2008 he released his first CD..finally :)

The Sound of Arrows - Danger
Another song that was so much fun in 2008! This swedish band will release their new album in 2009...

Swedish for Beginners - Magical Machines
I downloaded this song a while ago (it was a legal download) and I fell in love with it :)

BWO - Lay your love on me
Well, sticky pop...but I remember good times whenever I hear this song...all I say is Stockholm...and a long Disconight at Club G :P

Other than that - Jason Mraz, The Killers, Kent, Fleet Foxes, The Sound of Arrows and lately Santogold rocked 2008 for me :)

So, I'm sure that I forgot something... what are your top songs of 2008?

2009 will bring some great new song/albums too, I'm sure. Obviously I'm really looking forward to the new album of the one and only amazing SCISSOR SISTERS!! YAY!!!! But also Patrick Wolf, Antony & the Johnsons, Tori Amos and Imogen Heap will release new CDs...definitely something to look forward to :)

Have a good start into 2009!
Manuel

Identitiy Crisis?

Hej everybody!
Sorry for the lack of posts...Actually I started writing a loooong post about current affairs (the death of a famous politician [Haider] in my homecountry and other stuff like that) but somehow I never finished it...
Anyway, here's a fresh new post...Actually I can't write much, because there's not much to tell.
I feel a bit weird at the moment...I got up quite early today to get started with my master thesis. My goal for today was to find the topic I want to write about and after some thinking and researching I found the topic I really want to do. Now I have to write an Exposé to give to the professor...I started writing it, but I need to do some more research, especially about literature. And I have some more questions about all the stuff, so I need to contact the university this week... Anyway, I also did a timetable with deadlines...I want to be finished with all the annoying bureaucracy in late november, which means that I could start working on my thesis in december..if everything goes well.
Sounds fine, doesn't it? But it's also scary, because I really don't know what I want to do with my life. Until now I always had a "plan" for some years. Back at school I wanted to succeed at the A-Levels and go studying...After I had achieved that, I wanted to be a good student and go abroad for 1 or 2 semesters. Well, as most of you know, I did that. After coming back from Sweden my planning started to get a bit "dizzy". Of course the goal for the next few months is writing my master thesis, but afterwards? I have no idea.
Right now I'm doing an internship, which means I work a lot and I have my daily routines. But when I think of doing that/living like that for the rest of my live I get scared. I'm 22, in my mid-late-early 20s, which means I have (hopefully) many many maaaany years to look forward to. But do I really want to sit in the office from 10-6 for the rest of my life? This is what makes me scared. On the one hand I'm the kind of person who feels better if everything's planned and secured. I want a job, I don't want to live day by day and see what's going to happen. On the other hand, the thought of doing what I do now for the rest of my life, makes me scared. By saying "doing what I'm doing now" I certainly know that I will change work. I won't stay in the company I'm doing my internship - but who knows what will happen next. Maybe I will write my master thesis in munich, working part time for the company...but I really don't know what I should do afterwards.
So, you see, I'm missing a plan. :P

Other than that and the master thesis, my life is OK right now. Munich is OK, I got used to it and the bavarians, but I still don't enjoy it that much. Munich is really not my favourite place to be, but maybe this will change some day. I don't have enough time to really hang out with people and I guess that's an important reason for feeling uncomfortable in munich.
Anyway, that's it for now...
bye
m.

Springtime for ....

Hello everybody!

Just came back from a wonderful weekend in Vienna... I went to the zoo, went to see "The Producers" and to some museums...It was a really nice weekend, I enjoyed it a lot. My personal Highlight was the Musical "The Producers" - it's so damn funny! The songs are OK, there's no real hook-line, but the lyrics are really funny, the actors were great, the set was amazing and the choreography was great too!
As I said, it's really funny...and it makes fun of nearly everbody - gays, men, women,... Some of the jokes were a bit tough (a gay hitler in a musical called "springtime for hitler"...) and I guess not everybody feels like laughing about it...but me and my boyfriend, we had a blast in the theater :)

The zoo was nice too...I've uploaded some pictures of cute animals ;)

Anyway...tomorrow I will go to the Amanda Palmer concert in munich - I'm so looking forward to that! She's amazing and I've heard that she's an amazing live artist, I can't wait to see her..and probably meet her, because apparently she likes to take pictures with fans...who knows ;) However, I hope there's some nice Merchandising stuff to buy ;)

Bye,
m.

a cool Amanda Palmer song:

Music :)

I thought it's time for some new songs...

Let's start with Frankmusik, an english producer. He made a lot of Remixes (most recently for Radiohead...) and he will release an album in november. "3 Little Words" is the first single (produced by Stuart Price) - and it's so much fun! So is the video too - I want to dance on a piano-thing like that too!!
Frankmusik - 3 Little words


next, let's listen to a band whose album will be among my Top5 albums of the year - TV on the Radio. Very groovy, very nice production...perfect :)

TV on the Radio - Golden Age
(the audio quality isn't that good :-/ )


one of my favourite US-Indie Bands are going to release their new album soon...and that's their first single, enjoy :)
of Montreal - Id Engager


Let's get a bit calmer...with this beautiful piece of music. I discovered Ólafur Arnalds last year, when I was in Sweden. I think I read about him somewhere... Anyway, I ordered his CD and fell in love with his beautiful arrangements. And the video to this song is very beautiful...
Òlafur Arnalds - 3055


Last but not least, some german music. Rosenstolz, one of my guilty pleasures ;) It's from their new album...the album is a bit boring, in my opinion, but that's one of my favourite songs of it.
Rosenstolz - Wie weit ist vorbei

Hej :)

Hello everybody!

A lot has happened since my last entry...so it's time for an update.

Last weekend many people from Karlstad/former exchange students came to Munich for our "reunion". In Karlstad we planned that we will meet again at the Oktoberfest and somehow we decided to meet on the last weekend of it.
Hong and Sina arrived on Thursday evening, we had dinner together and had a really nice evening in our kitchen. It was almost like it used to be. It was weird, because I realised that I haven't had such a nice evening since I'm back from Sweden. Of course I had nice/funny evenings with my friends back home, but it's different. We don't cook together, we don't sit on a table and just talk - we go out, have a blast...which is nice, of course, but different. Anyway, on friday we strolled around Munich, met Lena and picked up Elisabeth from the station. It was sooooo nice to see her again!
We went back to my place, had a small pre-party and went back to the city center to meet the rest of the group. It was so cool, Lucia booked a table in an Irish Pub and we were around 20 people...it was so great to see them again! We had a funny evening at the Pub...but we didn't stay for too long, since we had to get up early for the Oktoberfest.
So on Saturday morning, 8.15, we were at the Oktoberfest, in front of the Schützenfestzelt. It was crazy how the people tried to get into the tent. They were pushing and yelling, it was worse than on a Robbie Williams concert. Anyway, we managed to get in and got a table.
Honestly, the mood inside the tent was really good. I don't drink beer, so I drank "Spezi" but I had a good time anyway. People were standing on the benches, singing to stupid german songs and just having a good time, it was really nice. The fun ended when the securities came to throw us out of the tent - our table was booked at 1 o'clock and at 12.15 they started to throw us out. They didn't give us a chance to get to another table, they just pushed us to the exit. Very harsh and very unfriendly. Most of us still had their glasses in their hands - including me.
So there we were, standing in front of the tent, in the rain..freezing and wet. After some hours of looking around and discussing we ended up in a Bar in the city center, where we had something to eat and drink. And in the evening we went back to the Oktoberfest were we sat in a beer-garden :)
So that's a summary of the Oktoberfest... on Sunday morning we took Elisabeth to the station and in the afternoon Hong met a chinese friend - and I went to the Premier of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3. It's quite complicated to explain, but an editor from BUNTE offered me to go there. So I went there, saw all the screaming teenagers standing next to the red carpet and thought that I should turn around and go back home... Instead, I tried to call the editor, but she didn't answer the phone. Helpless I wandered around and thought about what to do. I didn't have my ticket, because she told me that I should call her. I wasn't standing on the guestlist either...so I went to the press-counter and asked them if my name is on the list. Nope. So I explained them that the Bunte-editor is waiting for me but that I can't get in touch with her - and they gave me a press-card so I could get into the press-area next to the red carpet. I was standing there with my small digital camera, next to all the journalists with the huge cameras..and took some pictures of the celebrities that walked past us. Kai Pflaume, someone from Topmodels, and the actors of HSM 3 of course.
Afterwards I tried to call her again, no luck again...so when the people went into the cinema I left - because I didn't have a ticket (just the press-card, which wasn't valid as a ticket). It was a weird afternoon...I felt a bit like a cheater because I managed to get into the press-corner without actually doing something press-related :P

Soooo, that was my exciting weekend. Exciting, but not very relaxing, that's why I'm quite tired today...
good night ;)
M.
PICTURES OF THE OKTOBERFEST

:)

Just a very quick update... I drove home for the weekend, to meet some friends and...get away from munich *lol* (no, it's not that bad ;) ).
Anyway, tonight we will watch some movies on DVD, eat an unhealthy amount of crisps and popcorn, drink coke, lemonade and juice until we get a sugar rush and watch kitschy german chick flicks and bland american comedies...I'm looking forward to it - I haven't done anything like that since I'm back from Sweden. Oh how I miss the cosy evenings (or Sundays) with Sofia, TV and popcorn..and Melodifestivalen or a DVD.

However...what else is there to say...not much, to be honest. I work...a lot.
Next weekend we have our "Karlstad-Reunion" which will be nice, hopefully. I'm really looking forward to see everyone again..especially Elisabeth, Hong, Sofia, Eva, Sina...and maybe even Jonathan! :)
So, I will write more on monday...If my fingers aren't too fat and greasy after the crisps-overdose tonight ;)
manuel