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.

lamento.

Look! Evening Hymns have a new video, and I really like the visuals in here. And Jonas is trying to start a beard-competition with Mr. Fitzsimmons, I guess. ;)

I hope they're adding Munich to their current tour scheme, would be a shame to miss them.

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)

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)

tumbling backwards.

So here's a review of today in instagram pictures. (I actually wanted to boycott this app, when it was released for android, because of this douchebaggery but then I thought pissing all of this people off by using it, actually pleases me.)

So there was this big fleamarket (bavarians biggest, they say) in Munich, today, and I went with my best friend and her sister. I expected to end up going home with a handful of books, as usual, but I didn't find any interesting ones, only some that are already in my private library. But I was also looking for a picture frame for this WEEKEND movie poster Maria gave me as a present, and when I almost gave up, because the shapes and sizes and colors didn't match, I found the right one, yay!

Through the filters it looks a little yellowish, or even wooden, I guess, but it's actually golden, and I really really like it. I wasn't sure, at first, if it would match to the movie poster colours, but I think it's perfect. And from today on, it's the first thing I'll see when I wake up!

And the same vendor that sold the picture frame gave me that little cutie owl on the picture below for free, when I asked for the price. I still didn't figure out what kind of material it is made of, it looks very wooden, but it's really soft and fluffy.

As you can see, he is a little injured, missing half of his left eyebrow, but my ever growing owl family gave him a warm welcome.

Another thing I bought, was this rucksack. I kinda needed a new one (got my current one from the fleamarket aswell, last year, but I ruined the leather with a huge grease spot, hmpf). I feel a bit less guilty with this one, since it's not (fully) made of leather.

And then, also on the same day and spot in Munich there was this spring fair with all these carousels, and it got me kind of nostalgic, because I loved carousels when I was a kid (well, who didn't, right).
So got tempted and took a picture of the flying swing.

All in all an exciting day and I am pretty exhausted now.

nightcall.

week 52 - 26/12/11-01/01/12

I SAW :: the TAKE THAT re-union show on TV on New Year's morning

I HEARD :: my hosts in Leipzig played a lot of The Lonely Island 

I READ ::  started with A LOVER'S DICTIONARY by David Levithan

I ATE :: various styles of lasagna

I DRANK :: a hot rhubarb drink, yummy!

I THOUGHT :: I'm glad I got out of that depressing city (my hometown)

I LIKED :: the fireworks!! I love them since I was a little kid

I DISLIKED :: the haircut, ugh!
I PLANNED :: to read more recent literature

I BOUGHT :: several train tickets

white pony.

dear followers. nostalgia music week comes to an end and it's crowned with a song by the band that had the most influence on my youth. a band that still gives me shivers whilst listening to their music after such a long time. ten years ago a band called DEFTONES released an album called "WHITE PONY" and to me it's the most wonderful, dynamic, disturbing and frightening piece of music i have ever witnessed. true story.

[A -> B] Life

Ladies and Gentlemen, today we actually have a real music video. Enjoy MEWITHOUTYOU!




get excited! because tomorrow the pinnacle of "nostalgia music week" will be revealed!

false cathedrals.

This was a tough choice today. My first thought was Coheed and Cambria. But try to find some songs on youtube by a well known band and GEMA will cut your plans. The next band I think about is Criteria. But Criteria is not really a helpful bandname if you are searching for their music. So my choice today is ELLIOTT. Enjoy!

thriller.

welcome to nostalgic music day #4.

oh jonah...

relationship of command.

Today i want to remember to a band I discovered when they already had split up. AT THE DRIVE-IN. I must have listened to RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND a bazillion times and i never grew tired of it. Here is "Quarantined".

 

two conversations.

on the second day of nostalgic week I want to pay homage to THE APPLESEED CAST. More specificly to that outstanding release called TWO CONVERSATIONS.

this song. breathtaking.

who will survive and what will be left of them?

I just decided it is nostalgic week. i'll bury some music treasures for the following seven days. 

Today I'll start with MURDER BY DEATH. I just re-listened the whole "Who will survive and what will be left of them?" album and every song on this record is a friggin hit!

i could also imagine, that at the end of this week, there will be a sampler with the chosen songs on 8tracks.