relief.

Uhm, hi! So...I have been neglecting this place somewhat, due to lack of time. But I wanted to give you a little retrospective on the last 12 months, which were possibly the best I have yet witnessed. And I sure hope the awesomeness will continue in 2013! 

Like usual, I wanna start with a review on my favourite records of 2012. I remember that, in summer, I had rashly announced BEAR IN HEAVENs album "I love you, it's cool" as my favourite record of the year 2012. It kind of blew me away like nothing I had heard in along while and so I was sure there would be no other record that could possibly oust this release from the throne. But here comes the Mancunian (yes I had to google that, too) in to the game. Like with BEAR IN HEAVEN, I needed several attempts with HOLY OTHERs "Held" to get into the full spectrum of this – yes I might just call it a – masterpiece. And because it is often too hard to clothe my thoughts into words, I picked out a quote from Pitchforks review on "Held":

"Desire, neediness, vulnerability, fear, pleasure, and confusion are all laid bare. Held is a love album, a modern love album. Not love as aspirational fantasy but lived love, contradictory love-- the real love that stifles as much as it soothes."

With LEMONADEs "Diver" I (re-)discovered my love for synth-pop in the vein of ZOOT WOMAN. I fell in love with tracks like "Neptune" "Vivid" and especially "Whitecaps". There is actually not one flaw on this release full of pop gems. And with the last two records I am still quite surprised as I never got along before, with their previous releases. I think the gates to HOW TO DRESS WELL opened a little with the collaboration on ACTIVE CHILDs 2011 release "You Are All I See" which was, if you remember, one of my favourite albums in 2011. In hindsight, I am very happy that I finally got access to this artists world, since his concert in Munich on the night before my birthday was one of the best experiences in 2012. And with GRIZZLY BEAR I am even more surprised, because on the one hand, it is actually one of the few non-electronic albums I listened to this year, and on the other hand, similar to HOW TO DRESS WELL, I never really liked this band before "Shields". Therefore I am still convinced that the older you grow, the more open you become to several stiles of music and I am looking forward to all the stuff I have to explore, yet. 

Below, you can see some more releases I enjoyed this year, warm-heartedly recommend to everyone who is open for something new and more or less unexplored.

But we're not done here, yet. I imposed myself with the merely impossible task to sum up this year in music by picking out 12 of my favourite songs. By all means, there are lots more than just 12 of them, but here we go:

1) HOLY OTHER_NOTHING HERE

Unconditional love.

2) WIFE_BODIES

When you get a personal recommendation from your current favourite artist, chances are high, that you dig it. But I completely fell in love with this song from the very first listen.

3) BEAR IN HEAVEN_THE REFLECTION OF YOU
This song had almost been ruined to me by a person. But fortunately I don't let people do this to me anymore.

4) TWIGS_ACHE
What the title says.

5) LEMONADE_WHITECAPS
The one song I desperately wanted to dance to in a club last year. But never had been given the chance to. And I love love love the drums in this one.

6) JOHN TALABOT_ORO Y SANGRE
If 16 wouldn't be such an odd number* when it comes to making best of lists, you would probably see John Talabots "Fin" up above. And: there should really be more songs with screams in them.

7) PURITY RING_OBEDEAR
Oh, look! It's a video from the concert in Munich. Nevermind the bass, though.

8) o F F LOVE_BE AROUND YOU
I still remember how it stunned me, the first time I listened to it. And it still does, today.

9) HOW TO DRESS WELL_STRUGGLE
Probably the most intense live performance from last year.

10) GRIMES_GENESIS
It took a very long time with us, Claire and me. But this song made me fall in love with her. Unfortunately, she did not show up, when we were supposed to have a date last november. Bitch.

11) ¥OIN_TIRED OF ME
This song introduced me to future garage. Thank you very much, song!

12) STAY+_DANDELION SEED
Because we did not have enough weird videos in this list, yet. But serioulsy though, I love the song.


And how about those concerts I visited in 2012. These were my favourite ones:
ACTIVE CHILD - 28th Feb - Atomic Café - Munich
Pure bliss. That is all.
M83 - 5th Mar - Theaterfabrik - Munich
I still think I was the one person in the audience who had the most fun.
BEAR IN HEAVEN - 5th June - KONG -
Munich So the sound wasn't perfect, as I recall, but still these guys were superawesome.
OTHER LIVES - 25th July - Kranhalle - Munich
Those peeps made me want to join a band and stand on a stage myself.
SPRING OFFENSIVE - 18th Oct - Orangehouse - Munich
Unexpected. Intense. Stunning.
HOW TO DRESS WELL - 30th Oct - Kranhalle - Munich
Heartbreaking.
HOLY OTHER/BEACH HOUSE - 14th Nov - Hansa39 - Munich
If only there wasn't the audience. But then again..I had a really great night.
PURITY RING - 15th Nov - Hansa39 - Munich
Best atmosphere.

Also, every time I had the chance to see Carlos play live. Always amazing.



Ok, three more categories, and you're through, I promise.

So what about cinematography in 2012? I must admit, I probably haven't seen too many relevant movies that were released last year, to make a proper judgement. But still I doubt that any movie I didn't choose to watch (for reasons) would be better than the one favourite movie I chose. And this would be:

Michael Haneke has been one of my favourite filmmakers for quite a while. And I was very much lucking forward to see this one. It is one of those movies, that employs your mind for longer than a day, after having watched it.

Other movies from 2012 I enjoyed a lot:

PROMETHEUS
CHRONICLE
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
LOOPER
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
PARANORMAN
SHAME
and of course
THE HUNGER GAMES

and then there were TV shows of course. And one which was pretty outstanding. My favourite show this year comes as a real surprise mostly for myself, since I didn't enjoy the prior season that much. I am talking about:

The current season hasn't even ended, yet. In fact, as you might know, they split the season in two parts and expected viewers to put up with this terribly long latency. Damn you! And as if this is not enough, they ended the first part of the season with the most terrible cliffhanger!

And last but not least. My favourite book, released in 2012. What else would it be than this one:

I don't think I need to say more about this. I don't even know if there will ever be another book that will mean as much to me (and probably lots of other people) than this one. Seriously.


As usual, when encountering my dear followers with epic posts like this one, I thank you very much for  your attention! Stay tuned, I am will try to keep this thing here alive! :)

*I know 16 is not an odd number. In fact it is the opposite of it. But YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, RIIIGGHT!?! D'UHH

past tension.

I am observing a trend in the music scene, lately. Bands that have already released several albums suddenly come back to their roots and sound like their old selves again. And I don't really know, yet, what to think of it. Two bands in particular are MENOMENA and MEWITHOUTYOU with their current releases from 2012. While "Mines", MENOMENAs third release from 2010 was pretty different from what they had done before, imho, due to the split with Brent Knopf, their new release, "Moms" just sounds EXACTLY like "Friend and Foe" it has ALL the same elements just in other variatons. Now I could say, cool, that's the way I liked MENOMENA best, and I never really became a friend of "Mines", but on the other hand, it just somehow sounds like uninspired repetition. And the same thing occured to me while I was listening to the new MEWITHOUTYOU release a few days ago.. It took me a while to even dare to listen to it. On the one hand, my taste in music always keeps on developing, and recently I enjoyed more electronic artists than guitar-based sound, so I didn't really think I would be in the mood for it. On the other hand, this band means A LOT to me, and I am always very tensed when one of my all time favourites has a new release after a long time. And I am already questioning in advance, if the new sounds can compete with what I loved so much in the past. So I listened to "Ten Stories" today, and oh my, MEWITHOUTYOU put their cheerful singalongs aside and went back to the good old "Catch for Us The Foxes" and "A to B Life" times. But is that really a wise choice? Well, in the case of MWY, probably yes, because one thought came to my mind, while listening to "Ten Stories". Aaron Weiss is still one of my favourite persons on this planet.

And because I babbled so much about music, here are some videos to live up to my...uhm...humble thoughts.

inpouring.

It's octobaarrrr, peeps. The coolest month evaaar. And that's not because my birthday is waiting on the last of its days. Ok, yes it is. I really don't know why people keep complaining "uughhh, I'm getting older, screw this shit". I looove to celebrate birthdays, and mostly my own. ;) But as it is, I actually haven't planned anything, yet. This might have to do with the fact, that in less than a month my new job will start, and that's the only thing I can currently think about. I have only one week left at my old job, which is actually hard to believe. Then I will have some spare vacation days and then IT IS ON! But October is also when all the TV shows are coming back for new seasons. I am already overcharged. I didn't dare to watch the first HIMYM episode, right on time, but then I thought, heck, I need to get started with this, before it's getting awkward. It hasn't been great, so far, but I still have high hopes for some glorious new episodes. But I am secretly hoping they will put this show to an end, with the last episode of this season. Then NEW GIRL started, too. And it has been satisfyingly hilarious. Then the 7th season of Dexter started, and I was massively disappointed by the last one, but damn, they are finally taking this series to another level of awesome. First episode was pretty good. And then I heard THE WALKING DEAD are also coming back, already? You gotta be kidding me? When am I going to have the time to watch all this? Not to mention the new season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY, which I am pretty curious about. And last but not least, October is spooky time, and guess who loooves spooky time? Yeah, you got it right...but let's move on to the reviews of last month.


THE BOOKS I HAVE READ:

CROSSED by ALLIE CONDIE

So this is the follow up to Allie Condie's first book from the "Matched" series, and I already reviewed that one a few months ago, and was positively surprised. The second book reminded me a lot to the second release from the "Maze Runner" series, "The Scorch Trials", because of the whole wandering through deserted places thing. All in all I think it was a solid follow up, but I remember being a little disappointed at the end, since the whole efforts of the characters seemed somewhat senseless, sort of like the sysiphus methaphor used in the book. But I better judge the whole series altogether, when I have read the last book. (4/5)

FIRST COMES LOVE by KATIE KACVINSKY

Uhh, cheesy romantic cover! But I have to admit, that was actually the reason, why I gave that book a try, and I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed this book, and it was actually the first book, I finished within 24 hours. I guess the story isn't even that special. A vigorous girl taking a challenge on a boy who rather wants to be left alone. I guess, sometimes it's just really the way a book is written, to make me fall for it. And this one did. (5/5)

HOLIER THAN THOU by LAURA BUZO

Alright, this was pretty disappointing. Although from the storyline, it could have been so interesting. A book with a more realistic touch, about a girl, talking about her job as a social worker in a psychiatric ward, and experiencing that she is getting more and more distant from her former highschool friends. But when you might think, that this would be a very emotional and touching book, the author just manages to let you feel no empathy at all for the protagonist. At this very moment, I didn't even finish the book, and started a new one instead, but I still think I am able to give it a rating, since I read 80% of the book. (2/5)

THE MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED:

AMOUR

Ugh, so intense. I really don't know, but there was a time I decided not to watch any more movies that are expectably emotionally disturbing. But then again, all the great stuff you are missing out on! And AMOUR definitely is one of those movies worth watching. But then again, I am literally having nightmares about this, just like the...oh wait, I don't wanna spoil anything. But yeah, this is a Haneke as you might expect it, horrifying but great. (8/10) 

J'AI TÚE MA MÈRE

The second movie I watched as a french original this month, I am quite proud of myself.  I really wanted to see this one, as I had already enjoyed Xavier Dolan's "Les Amours Imaginairs" lately. And yes, I am – more than ever – in love with this boy and his filmmaking and I am looking forward to what he might be capable of in the future. (8/10)

EAT PRAY LOVE

This was such a disaster. I did not expect this movie would disappoint that much. But it's kinda like with the character of Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. I did not buy it for a second, how Julia Roberts tried to play a depressed person. Don't even get me started on her motives! The only good thing about this movie was Javier Bardem, for whom I had to wait until the very end, to come crawling out. And then he played such a dull character, oh my. Knowing of what he is actually capable of (No Country for old Men, Biutiful etc.) this was even more disappointing. (4/10)

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

Ok, I got to admit, I am still a bit confused by this movie. Until this day, I didn't really comprehend, in what relationships all the characters stood to each other. But in some way, this movie impressed me. Probably because I hadn't seen something like this before. And Sean Penn was really amazing and 10 times more convincing as a depressed person than other actresses I have mentioned. (7,5/10)

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

This was a bit disappointing aswell. I can't even really explain why. Maybe I just thought, my goodness, why are these characters both so immature? But then again, I like both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as actors, and they at least made me enjoy the movie.  (6/10)

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

This was probably a typical Woody Allen movie, where I can mostly not identify in any way with the characters. But at least, when the time travelling part of the movie started, it got at least a little bit funny.  (6/10)

amiable.

So last night I met John Green.

What a wonderful and kind person he is. 

Thank you for putting the most powerful and overwhelming thoughts on paper. 

life, according to plan.

Okay, peeps. I think it's finally time for that huge announcement, I've been hoping to do for a while now. I will start a new job in November with a very amazing and impressive company and to say I am very much looking forward to this is a big understatement. On friday, right on time for the weekend, I've been given a firm offer, after being interviewed three times (I guess they wanna be super certain, about who they want to work with). The funny thing about this is, that I was being introduced to the job offer via Xing, so yeah, you can probably count me to one of the few people who found their new profession via Xing. And you guys know how much I love the internet, and the fact, that it now provided me with a new job is just super incredible! 

Okay, lots of exaggerations in this post, huh? But the awesomeness proceeds as I am going to meet one of the coolest people in the world in less than a week. On friday, 14th of September, here in Munich, there is going to be an introduction to the german release of "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, which I already described as one of the most impressive and affecting books I have ever read. (if not THE most..) and the author himself will be there and I am sooo excited! 

I also made myself an early birthday present, and purchased this amazing box set (thanks to credit cards, I was able to buy it on Amazon.com since it's only available in the US.)

www.amazon.com

I know I already own "Looking for Alaska" and "The Fault in Our Stars" but I might aswell sell my previous editions. Both of those books are also signed by Mr. Green. And I still don't own "Paper Towns" and "An Abundance of Katherines". And the price is just super appealing to NOT wanna buy this! 

detonation.

Soooo, I actually waited a little while to be able to finally drop some big news in this post, but nooo, decisions are STILL to be made, and so I keep waiting patiently and use the spare time today and write some words about the last month. But waiting was basically all that happened in August, besides my parents visiting, but this I already mentioned in one of the last posts. So since there is nothing much to talk about, I thought I could share one of my musical discoveries for which I am already dying to hear more in the forseeable future. So far, the only thing existing by this artist called TWIGS is a tumblr blog and two videos on it and the web doesn't spill any infos about the girl many people are already comparing to Aaliyah. Well, I just really like her addicting mix between R'n'B and electro.

Well, I bet you already wondered what kind of cheesy romances I have been reading last month, you shall be released. ;)

THE BOOKS I HAVE READ:

REASON TO BREATHE by REBECCA DONOVAN

This was an exciting read about a teenager being physically abused by a family member and I am still trying to figure out how to rate this book properly. I was very drawn to all the characters, none of them was dull or uninteresting, but at some points I just couldn't comprehend some of the protagonists actions. Nevertheless it kept me guessing and wanting to read on. (3/5)

THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by JENNIFER E. SMITH

The first time I heard of this book about two teenagers who meet on an airplane in one of John Greens many video blog entries, as one of his personal recommendations. A friend of mine had read it, too, but told me not to expect too much. And in the beginning it actually was a bit boring but it grew with every page and, yes, my eyes got a little wet. (4/5)

MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by HUNTLEY FITZPATRICK

This also was a recommendation by the friend mentioned above, who fell madly in love with the Garretts Family that is pictured in this book. And I think I fell in love with them, too, especially 4-year-old George, who is an adorable precocious toddler scaring himself with world end scenarios, but in a very hilarious way. Oh and of course there is a lovestory, in particular with the protagonist Sam and one of the Garretts family members (in fact there are 8 siblings). But of course all is not well in teenage wonderland, because Sam's mother, a politician on an election campaign, who is sorta disgusted by the huge and catastrophic Garrett family. All in all a hilarious but also dramatic book worth reading. (4/5)

MY LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE by NATASHA FRIEND

I have the least memory on this book, since I read it in the beginning of the month, but I remember that I hardly liked it. The story is about a girl who looses her appeal, when her face gets injured in a car accident. And when you think, ok, this character will probably try to make the best of her life, the whole book is just a whiney tantrum thrown by a immature teenager, and you ask yourself, what kind of message the author wants to deliver, since it seems to be all about the obsession with beauty. (2/5)

THE MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED:

PROMETHEUS

Holy smokes, that was pretty neat! There weren't exactly answers too the many questions a viewer might have had in advance, but who cares, haha! I love movies where you are left behind with theories and stuff. And since there will be sequels I don't doubt much about the answers to follow. 

What I loved about this movie were the visuals. Those holograms from the past! Or these little flying tracker-thingies, veeery nice! And we need to talk about Mr. Fassbender. Somewhere in an online review a person wrote, that fassy played his role so convincing, that you really had the feeling, he was and android. And that's exactly what I thought, during the movie. Well done, Fassy! Well done, Ridley Scott. (9/10) 

BOY A

Andrew Garfield plays the role of young adult, who has recently been released from jail, after he took part in the killing of girl as when he was still a child. And as hard as this sounds, Andrew Garfield plays his role so you feel empathy towards this person who comitted such a horrible crime. Probably one of his best perfomances. (8/10)

PARANORMAN

Oh my, this was really awesome and hilarious. An animated film about a little boy who can see dead people, and has been chosen to save his town from a witch's curse. I reeally loved the characters in the movie but I wondered if it might not have been a little too scary for 6-year-olds sitting in the cinema with us. But none of them seemed disturbed afterwards, so maybe I'm just a little bit hysteric. (8/10)

THE 5-YEAR-ENGAGEMENT

Honestly, did this movie reeeally have to be sooo loong?! I really don't see any reason that justifies the length of 2 hours for a comedy like this one. There were some funny scenes, yes, but in the end I was a little disappointed by Mr. Segel. (6/10)

eavesdrop.

Guys, it's time for a recap on the last few weeks. I don't really want to reveal too much, as I am a little superstitious about things like that and don't wanna jinx anything, but rumor has it, that some big changes are awaiting me in the foreseeable future. But when decisions have been made, I'll let you know.
Besides that, nothing much happened. actually. There were fantasies about going to several summer festivals such as the austrian STUCK! which I had already mentioned in another post, or the DOCKVILLE Festival in Hamburg, but travelling to Hamburg turned out to be even more expensive than the tickets for the event. But I was lucky to finally witness a live show by the lovely Other Lives, who made quite an impression. What a passionate and professional bunch of people they are, who  immediately make you want to join a band, too!

So let's just quickly move on to the book and movie reviews.


THE BOOKS I HAVE READ:

BEAUTIFUL DISASTER by JAMIE McGUIRE

Ok, by this time, I arrived in the romance department of the young adult genre but I don't care if anyone thinks that's too gooey and all cliché. When you don't have a romance yourself, you'll just have to find yourself a substitute, right? And here we have a bad-boy-meets-innocent-girl-who-turns-out-to-be-not-so-innocent-after-all-story. All in all I can say that something was there that kept me excited about it, but inbetween there where some decisions made by both protagonists who just seemed somewhat inexplicable to me. But as I had no expectations at all to this book, I still felt positively entertained. (3/5)

BEFORE I FALL by LAUREN OLIVER

Contrary to Beautiful Disaster, here I HAD big expectations, having read Lauren Oliver's DELIRIUM before. This is her debut novel and it is highly praised in the YA-scene. We get to know 15 year old Samantha Kingston. And we get to know her on the day she dies. Until then, Sam is an obnoxious little bitch, and not knowing what to expect as the book continues, I had big problems in the beginning with the dullness of all the characters including the protagonist. I simply didn't think it could live up to DELIRIUM when I had read the first 50 pages. Nevertheless I kept on reading and by the time I finished this book Lauren Oliver had turned my point of view to 180 degrees. That alone made me decide to give this book the highest rating. But not only my POV changed, but of course the protagonist  evolves during a very brief amount of time, due to that fact, the author makes her live through the exact same day over and over again. (5/5)

FORBIDDEN by TABITHA SUZUMA

There is a good reason why the cover of this book is black. The whole story is just so desperate. But although this book might leave you sobbing at the very end, it is so very well written to be enjoyable nevertheless. Ms. Suzuma makes you love her protagonists right from the beginning. I think it takes a lot to write a story about incestuous love and make the readers review their mindset about this taboo topic. It also reminded me a lot of the recently watched "Fish Tank" because of the whole catastrophic family situation in which two young teenagers are forced to take responsibility at a very young age and need to deal with the lapse of a careless mother. (5/5)

HUNTING AND GATHERING by ANNA GAVALDA

I liked this book a lot because of its great mixture of humor and desperation. Four very different lonesome personalities come together and find their peace of mind when they decide to live together in a shared appartment. I also watched the movie adaption right away, and will write more about it in the movie section. (4/5)

BREAKING BEAUTIFUL by JENNIFER SHAW WOLF 

Another rather disturbing topic is focused in this book. 17 year old Allie looses her boyfriend in a carcrash, she herself survived it concisely with disfiguring scars on her face. She lost all her memory about the accident but has the feeling the death of her boyfriend is more of a relief than a loss. Further on in the book the reader finds out more about their forerun relationship in several memory flashbacks and why Allie not only has a scarred face but also a scarred soul. For me the book was really interesting but at some point you just want to shake the protagonist awake to reveal the truth about her dead boyfriend.  (3/5)

THE MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED:

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

One Word: Ewwwww! There are some disgusting scenes in that movie. But nevertheless I thought it's worth watching. This is a story about a seperation, dealing with it and having to choose sides. Making mistakes, regretting and forgiving. (6/10)

2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

Quite nice but unfortunately not as hilarious as the previous one 2 DAYS IN PARIS. Most of the jokes seemed very forced and it didn't really seem to have a bigger message. (6/10)

ADVENTURELAND

I had kind of a thing for Jesse Eisenberg this month, huh? Adventureland is a solid mixture of a teenage comedy and drama, nothing less nothing more. One point more for Eisenbergs adorableness..(does that word exist?) (7/10)

SOME BOYS DON'T LEAVE

Brevity is the soul of wit. (Yes I just looked that proverb up) This short movie was way better than a lot of the other full-length movies I watched this month. We have only two protagonists, ex-boy and girlfriend. And he literally just can't leave the once shared flat because he is unable to emotionally move on, which I think is a nicely interpreted methaphor. (8/10)

IN TIME

I thought the concept of the movie was really interesting (is there a book on which the film was based, haha, I'm already assuming this, since screenwriters seem to run out of ideas for a while now) but..uhm..I was very tired while watching the movie and it was really hard to keep myself awake, which says a lot about the tension of it, right? (5/10)

ALIEN

This movie is a great example that people are able to create a suspenseful atmosphere with much less possibilities than moviemakers have nowadays. I was sitting there with my hands in front of my eyes because I couldn't pretend what was coming next. On the other hand, of course, some effects appeared to be somewhat ridiculous but that only added more fun to it, I guess. (8/10)

THE OTHER WOMAN

A movie about a young woman, who – sort of – crushes the marriage of her boss when he falls in love with her and chooses to live with her instead. Having just lost her newborn child, she tries to focus on her stepson from her husbands former marriage, but she is struggling with this rather difficult child and his real mother who constantly gives her the feeling that she is a verdant, useless person. Although the story seems quite interesting there was something about the movie that made it hard to enjoy. (5/10)

ENSEMBLE C'EST TOUT (HUNTING AND GATHERING)

I challenged myself to watch this adaption of the previously read book in it's original language, and it worked quite well. As I mentioned, I thought the movie was a good implementation of the book. Audrey Tatou seemed perfect for the main role, and all the other characters where just as adorable. (7/10)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET

This was a rewatch resulting out of nostalgia. And I still think this was a really great interpretation of Shakespeare's classic. DiCaprio is just gorgeous in here. (8/10)

shrines.

Infinite anticipation!

 
Stuck! Festival - Trailer 2012 from Stuck! Festival on Vimeo.

(Although I didn't really figure out, yet, how to finance this trip to Salzburg, but be sure I already took part in one or two competitions! Hrrhrrr.) In other news, I'm really pissed right now, because Purity Rings long awaited full-length album is not available on Spotify - probably only in my country. FTS!

hexagons.

What an exhausting but awesome weekend that was! I had been looking forward to this for a while. Been excited since the day I heard of munich's light installation artists from Lunaland, planning their anniversary party in a special location, a factory where sleeping cars once had been built. (Among these, the famous Orient Express!) And I shrieked a little when I heard that ESBEN AND THE WITCH would be the headlining act to play on friday night. Some of you might remember that I declared their gig last year at Atomic Café in Munich as concert of the year.  And with this kind of venue and all the light effects I wouldn't have been surprised if that concert would be even better.

Another surprise was, that the band played lots of new tunes for the first time ever. There were three more bands this evening, all more or less from the shoegazer faction, but my attention was rather limited to EATW, I have to confess. 

While friday was pleasure for your ears, saturday was dedicated to the visuals senses. Next to two dancefloors there where lots of exhibitions by several local artists in the different parts of the factory. Among these were some psychologists who introduced a light therapy that was supposed to dissemble the perceptions of a mind under the influence of LSD. I tried an innocuous demo of 2 minutes (on friday), but I thought it was rather unspectacular. I wanted to try the longer and more intense version a day later, but the room was flooded with people and I couldn't imagine all of them watching while making this new experience. All in all I thought it was more amazing to watch, then to actually sit on the chair and have this extremely bright and flickering stroboscobic-like light on your eyes. And watching other people sitting there with that light just felt like you are right inside of a Lynch movie. Crazy shit. 

On sunday it was time for some music again. A little bit more quiet, this time. The team from innen.außen.raum invited three solo musicians, Woodpigeon from Canada, Halo of Pendor from the Netherlands (former Sweden) and dear Carlos Cipa from Munich. Carlos opened the evening with a simultaneous record release party and was stunned when people asked him to sign their copies. I also thought it was kinda sweet that his parents came to see him play. 

Then the swedish (dutch...whatever) guy played his sad songs, and messed up a little, with his loops but it was pretty easy to forgive him due to his cuteness. ;)

And the canadian guy was a little tired, and I still don't know why he kept checking his iPhone after every song, either was he checking the results of the football game that was running at the same time the concert took place, or he had his setlist on his phone, I dunno, but it didn't make a good impression.

Anywho! Here are some impressions of the weekend. If you weren't there you are probably a square, but at least you can imagine what you were missing! :P

To see more and fullsized images check this. All the images tagged with lunastrom10 are relevant.

amongster.

So that was may, yay. I'm gonna throw you some sentences to sum up the events that highlighted my days and nights in the merry month of may.  Some flattering scoldings were showered at me. A weird guy from Los Angeles shook my hand for what felt an eternity. I finally bought a new bookshelf for the  countless books that flew around my bedroom, and I made my first Facebook-Page. It already counts an outrageous number of fans (that would be 5, so much for the loyalty of your friends, pah!)!! So be quick and like it if you, too, want Ryan Gosling to play the part of the irresistible Johnny Castle in the remake of Dirty Dancy, which will be released in 2013, I guess. And I know, you want it. And because you might not be able to picture him as Johnny, foresightful as I am, I made a little photo-manip for you, so you will be convinced, immediately. (Oh gawd, did I really name that URL goslinggoesdirty?)

Ok, enough of the shenanigans. I didn't really consume much media this month, at least not many movies lighted my homescreen, nor did I set foot in a cinema, this month. But let's start with the books I read this month. I read a lot in my mother tongue, since I hauled some german books from a second-hand book store at the end of last month. 

THE BOOKS I HAVE READ:

SE RÉSOUDRE AUX ADIUEX (Ein Abschied) by PHILIPPE BESSON

This book was actually a very spontaneous purchase. It tells the story of a woman who is left by her lover, and devastated as she is, she starts writing letters to him while she travels the world trying to escape the city in which they spent so much time together. And what can I say, this book literally spoke    from my heart with all it's allegations and self-doubts, the more astounded I am, that this book actually wasn't even written by a woman, but I am probably just to swayed by stereotypes. But I enjoyed this read a lot. (4/5)

UND IM ZWEIFEL FÜR DICH SELBST by ELISABETH RANK

A book by a native german author, so no english title here. I planned to read this one for a while now. I thought I could identify myself pretty well with the story she tells, since the author and I share the year of our birth. But I had my troubles to really sense the emotion here. Reading a book about a fatal accident of a loved one, might make you think, it shouldn't be to hard to get emotionally involved. But  I guess it was just the style of writing that made it somewhat hard for me. (3/5)

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS by PAOLO GIORDANO

Ugh, italians..haha. Sorry. But I recently saw the screen adaption of this book, and it was...I really don't know, but I felt like all the important details were put aside and the filmmakers just made a completely new story. But back to the book. The storyline sounded pretty interesting. The lives of two teenagers who suffered major strokes in their childhoods, get mixed together and both of them, as much as they need each other, just can't find their way together, both rather preferring solitude than to risk something. Anyways, I wish the author wouldn't have skipped so much through the years, so I felt like some important things happening in between were missing (almost like in the movie, haha...well actually not THAT disastrous). (3/5) 

INSURGENT by VERONICA ROTH

The follow-up to the first book of the DIVERGENT book trilogy. I think I didn't write about the first one, but I would say this is a pretty satisfying quality dystopian book series comparable to THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, but yet a totally different and unique world. INSURGENT is in no way inferior to DIVERGENT and just as exciting and suspenseful. (4/5)

THE MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED:

 

HELL

Hell as in hell like the german word for bright. But it might as well be an allegory to the devil's hell, since the sun is burning so bright, that it is almost impossible to stay in the sunlight during the day,  and also the hell that people might face, in a post-apocalyptic world where the phrase "an eye for an eye" applies. But why am I actually putting so much effort in this short review. The movie was shite.  There you go. Haha. (3/10)

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Well, this movie certainly was something for the eyes. Even the opening credits were a little movie themselves, haha. I think, James Bond and Ms. Mara made a good team on this american movie adaption. Of course it had much more suspense than the swedish original, but I was constantly asking my friends, with whom I watched this movie together and didn't read the book, if they were actually able to follow the movie. Even I had my problems to recall everything from the books I read one and a half years ago. I can't imagine how confusing it must be for a person who didn't already know all the secondary characters and their relevance. I think, this could have been done much better, and already has been done better in the swedish version. Nevertheless I like the movie quite much. (7/10)

INTO THE WILD

Ugh, THAT GUY. If it wasn't so sad, because it's based on a true story, I would have laughed all the time. Just go out in the wild with NO experience at all and get yourself...in trouble. I also might not share the same desire for adventures and freedom, because I like it safe and sound, so I didn't enjoy the movie as much as a kindred soul probably would have. (7/10)

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Say what you want but this movie was so full of AWESOME. I lol'd a lot. (10/10)

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Another guilty pleasure which actually wasn't really a pleasure since I found out during watching the movie, that I don't really like Anne Hathaway. Jake Gyllenhaal was quite charming yes, but I still like him the best as the awesome Donnie Darko. (6/10)

the entire city.

i have been checking out tons of music the last weeks, because right now i am desperate and hungry for new music. Every two or three months I need something to get badly obsessed with and then mostly I get a bit tired of it and I need to search for something fresh. So I checked out NME's 100 New Bands for 2012 list, as I once discovered some good new stuff back in 2010 from an NME's sampler with 50 new artists to watch out for. Amongst them Clare Maguire, Glasser or Sleigh Bells which I was glad to discover. Now some of the 100 new bands for 2012 were some I already knew and the rest was mostly not worth mentioning. Only two bands really caught my attention. The first one is called Exitmusic. I really liked their song The Modern Age, but I'm still not fully convinced with the rest of their music. The same applies to a band called 2:54. There is this song called Scarlet, which is kind of interesting.

But then, boys and girls, I finally found a way to cheat and use spotify (I don't know when it will ever be released in Germany and simfy on the contrary is just pissing me off with ads after every frexing song!)

and this is just paradise for me right now and yes I found a new obsession and it is called Gazelle Twin. It's hard for me to describe the music, but I guess people who dig Fever Ray, for example, would also like Gazelle Twin's tunes (although actually I don't dig Fever Ray, haha) But just listen for yourself:

rano pano.

week 50 - 12/12/11-18/12/11

I SAW :: I don't remember watching a movie this week, I guess I was too busy reading..

I HEARD :: lots of Mogwai in my ears, lately

I READ ::  finished HABIBI ♥ and started THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins

I ATE :: vegan goodies at Katerwerkstatt

I DRANK :: glogg glogg glogg! 

I THOUGHT :: i need to stop eating white wheat products

I LIKED :: my glossybox arrived right in time!

I DISLIKED :: amazon disappointed me again!
I PLANNED :: to get my hair cut before 2012

I BOUGHT :: two awesome pairs of red pants (yes!) and a new scarf...uhmm..

I CLICKED :: http://make-everything-ok.com/

hoot hoot!

if you are an owl-lover, as i am, you may know the blog named: my owl barn. (it's also linked in my blogroll) last year they created a free downloadable calendar. you were able to choose the 12 calendar sheets out of aprox. 30 artist designs from other owl lovers in the world. and today they have shared a new edition for 2012. get your calendar here. 

Picture from http://www.myowlbarn.com