Pre-Christmas Quickie

Sounds dirty, but isn't. Ha.

Anyway, here's another sort of general update:

The office move went well. Compared to the other 2 companies that moved with us, we seem to have been the most organized - despite my presence ;-) All my colleagues were there and helping. We were pretty much settled in by the afternoon. There's still some work to be done on the building itself, though.

I'm not feeling very christmassy - again. But I did go to the famous Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt this year and had some Glühwein. Still have to make a photo calendar for my parents. Hope the prints will arrive today.

Wanted to go see a romantic comedy with my sister on the weekend but the 2 movies we had picked as options weren't on anymore. I'm talking about New in Town with Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. and Love Happens with Jennifer Aniston.

I've been listening to Milow a lot this past week. He's a singer/songwriter from Belgium and had a big hit with a cover version of 50 Cent's Ayo Technology. I watched a concert from Berlin that was streamed live on Facebook. He even did a cover version of Joni Mitchell's song River. Beautiful. He has a soft voice and good lyrics, I think.

It's freezing cold and snowed for the past 3 days. Still went to work by car after I had brushed off all the snow. The weather forecast says we'll get a rainy, mild Christmas. As always.

This is so random. I should start writing blog entries that focus on one topic. Damn.

General update

I've updated the list of what I'm watching. A couple of seasons ended in the past 2 weeks. Desperate Housewives will be back in January. When there will be new episodes of Chuck and Cold Case, I have no idea. But I've read that 2 shows that premiered this fall in the US will start airing here in January (Wednesdays on Pro7 after Desperate Housewieves): Vampire Diaries from The WB and HawthoRNe from TNT. I'm not that much into vampires (even though the rest of the female world seems to be in love with Edward Cullen/Robert Pattinson from the Twilight book/movie series), but I'm always curious about new TV shows so I'll give it a try. HawthorRNE stars Michael Vartan, who was Vaughn in one of my all-time favourite shows Alias, so how could I not watch?!

What else: my best friend and her boyfriend are now completely obsessed with playing FarmVille on Facebook and I guess I am to blame. I still play, too, but I'm getting a bit annoyed with the game because it's so time-consuming and always puts pressure on you to do stuff every 5 minutes. So I guess I prefer casual games like Biotronic which you can play for 5 minutes and you don't have to come back to check if your cranberries are fully grown or your cows need to be milked or whatever.

Speaking of Facebook: my boss has decided we should keep private and business stuff separate on social media networks, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that or why. I only have 6 people as friends on Facebook who qualify as clients and they are not really decision-makers at their radio stations so I don't see what harm it does if they see a funny video clip I share or a status update from me. I think what my boss wants to avoid is that we come across as unprofessional like some people who post silly pictures every 5 minutes which makes you wonder if they ever work. I try to stay away from Facebook during working hours anyway so that won't happen. My co-workers seem to disagree with my boss as well cos they said it could improve your relationship with clients if you get to know them better by interacting with them on Facebook. So we'll see how that debate continues.

Other stuff at the office: we're moving in a week from Monday and I'm very nervous. The new building is only about a mile from the one we're in now. But there's still a lot of stuff to pack and to organize. I hope my colleagues/superiors won't leave me all alone on moving day cos they want to work from home and not be bothered with the chaos. I can just see them coming in later to complain that the furniture is not in the right place. Argh. Well, I don't want to be too negative about it. I'll just have to tell myself that everything will work out fine ... *sigh*

The past weeks have been exhausting cos I've basically been working 50 hours a week which is no fun at all. And my skin is worse than ever. I have psoriasis and it's back with a vengeance itching like hell literally from head to toe. And now I'm not even sure if it is psoriasis. My boss keeps saying I should try homoepathy, but I'm not convinced. For now I just hope it'll go away soon and put lotion on the affected areas. Great. I also need to get a couple of wisdom teeth out. I've been putting that off for years. I really need to start looking after myself better. That'll be my first new year's resolution: make doctors' appointments. I love it already. Not. Argh.

What else: my sister is getting married next May to a guy from Milan, Italy. I like him a lot. My family met his family last weekend. His parents seem nice, too.

Ha. Now you know everything that's going on, more or less.

All sorts of TV stuff

Uh-oh, long time no post. As I might or might not have mentioned before, Facebook has taken over my life. Now that I've discovered the games you can play on there, I'm spending even more time on the site.

Anyway, I just saw the comment to the post below so I thought I'd reply in a separate post and also add some other stuff.

24: it still is and always has been in real time. Every season has 24 episodes for the 24 hours of one day. It's always about Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) saving the world, more or less. In the previous seasons he was an agent for the CTU (I think that stands for counter terrorist unit) in Los Angeles. There's always some sort of terrorist threat against the USA and especially its president and Bauer tries to stop it by all means. It's all very exciting with many twists and turns and lots of action. I can really recommend the show - even the latest season (7) has gotten better than it was at the beginning.

The Wire: I've heard of it - and only positive things, I think. According to Serienjunkies it's only been on Pay TV in Germany.

The Legend of the Seeker: pretty new on German TV. Based on a series of fantasy novels by Terry Goodkind and shot in New Zealand. I'm not sure how similar the novels are to The Lord of the Rings, but she show does look a bit like a rip-off. I probably wouldn't have started watching it if it wasn't for the beautiful scenery. I enjoyed the pilot, but the other episodes I've seen so far were rather mediocre.

Private Practice: am trying to keep up with the current U.S. season. Very much enjoyed Miranda Bailey's visit to L.A. (she's a regular on Grey's Anatomy, of which PP is a spin-off). Favorite quote: "This place is better than a telenovela". Hehe.

Lipstick Jungle: not the best show ever. Only watch it because Kirby Atwood (Robert Buckley) runs around shirtless most of the time. Pure eye candy. Hee. Oh, and how can you name a character Kirby?? It always makes me think of that fluffy pink or blue thing floating around like a cloud in one of my sister's old NEC games.

That's all for now. : )

No, wait, I forgot something: there's a new TV channel that started this month. zdf_neo. It's digital, but I can watch it via Zattoo on my computer. It shows all sorts of stuff previously unaired in Germany, such as 30 Rock, Spooks, Hustle etc. But they are on at 22:30 on weekdays so either I'm too tired or watching something else. Too bad.

More about Robbie and some stuff about 24

First of all, I thought the video would be embedded. Damn.

Secondly, I’ve now paid more attention to Robbie’s lyrics and can’t help smiling every time I hear this line: “All we’ve ever wanted is to look good naked, hoping someone can take it”. You gotta love RW for this.

Thirdly, greatness vs. asshole-ness (brought up by a friend's comment): I don’t think you necessarily have to be an asshole to be great. Yes, Robbie is a poser on stage, but that’s part of what makes him such a great entertainer. I’d never call him an asshole. As to his greatness, I think that has a lot to do with who he works with. As mentioned before, I hated his last album Rudebox although I own all of his other CDs. I know he wanted to try something new but it just didn’t work for me. Now he has teamed up with songwriting partner (or producer??) Guy Chambers again and it seems to have been a good decision. We’ll have to wait and see how the whole album sounds once it comes out.

I could go on with psycho-analyzing Robbie or go into a philosophical discussion of what defines greatness, but I guess I’ll postpone that : )

Other random stuff that's on my mind: I'm wondering why I don't like Season 7 of 24 as much as the ones before.
Possible reasons:
- It's on too late (from 10:30 to 00:30) so I'm just too tired to properly notice the good quality.
- The German dubbing is bad - well, it always has been on that show. Some of the voices just sound wrong.
- The quality really has gone down. Must check the web for reviews of Day 7. Miss President Palmer.

:: MTV | Robbie Williams - Bodies

When I first heard the song about a week ago, I thought "Oh no, not this Rudebox crap again", but then the "All we've ever wanted" part started and by the end of the song I was convinced that Robbie's greatness still exists : )

:: MTV | Robbie Williams - Bodies

Shared via AddThis

Facebook is down : (

A couple of hours ago I logged into Facebook briefly at work. I wanted to post something on a newly added friend's wall but got an error message. Then I tried to suggest friends for him but got another error message. I looked up a radio station and clicked on "become a fan". Nothing happened. I gave up, but couldn't even log out properly. Now I'm at home and can't even log in anymore. This sucks. I guess I'm addicted : )

I've been meaning to post some thoughts on Facebook anyway. Can't remember them now. Great. It was something along the lines of "Modern communication is very strange. It's for people like me who are lonely, but need to feel connected. But in the end it just makes you feel even lonelier." Or something like that. Not very uplifting. Sigh. Whatever.

What else:
Robbie Williams announced yesterday that a new single and album will come out in October and November. Yay, can't wait!

Public Enemies (Christian Bale's new movie) opened today in German movie theaters. Don't have anyone to come along. Hm. Still want to see it on the big screen. Must work that out somehow.

Doctor's Diary

Wer hätte's gedacht, es gibt noch gut geschriebene deutsche Serien - und ich hab ein Jahr gebraucht, um drauf zu kommen. Ich rede von der RTL-Ärzteserie Doctor's Diary - Männer sind die beste Medizin. Anhand der Trailer vom letzten Jahr hatte ich gedacht, es wäre ein billiger Abklatsch von Grey's Anatomy. Dass die Serie einige Preise abgeräumt hat, hätte mir zu denken geben sollen. Bin aber erst jetzt drauf gekommen. Morgen startet die 2. Staffel und man konnte sich aus diesem Anlass auf RTL Now die 8 Folgen der ersten Staffel kostenlos anschauen.

Das hab ich in der letzten Woche gemacht und war sehr positiv überrascht. Die Serie ist eher ein Mix aus Verliebt in Berlin und Bridget Jones im Krankenhaus. Die Dialoge sind witzig und die Darsteller sympathisch.

Im Mittelpunkt steht Dr. Margarete (Gretchen) Haase, die, nachdem ihr Verlobter sie betrogen hat, im Krankenhaus, wo ihr Vater Professor ist, als Assistenzärztin anfängt. Sie zieht wieder bei ihren Eltern ein, trägt bevorzugt rosa Klamotten und kämpft mit ihrem Gewicht. Einer der Oberärzte ist ihr Schulschwarm Marc Meier, der sie damals eigentlich nur geärgert hat und sie auch jetzt noch "Hasenzahn" nennt. Er ist ein arroganter Weiberheld, in dem Gretchen trotzdem einen guten Kern vermutet. Dann gibt es da noch den Gynäkologen Mehdi Kaan, der nett, sensibel und zuverlässig wirkt, aber einige dunkle Geheimnisse mit sich rumträgt. Die Serie ist nicht revolutionär, aber sehr unterhaltsam und empfehlenswert insgesamt - zumindest für weibliche Zuschauer.

Jacko etc.

So ... I guess I should say some things about Michael Jackson's death.

When/where did I hear about it: at about 6:40 a.m. on the radio while I was under the shower.

How do I feel about the whole thing? I guess I was surprised, but not particularly moved, so I didn't cry or anything. I remembered that my best friend in kindergarten/elementary school had the Bad album on tape and I borrowed and copied it to one of my many music cassettes.

What do I think about Michael Jackson in general: I definitely appreciate his contribution to music. Lots of great songs. But as a person he just seemed kind of weird. My theory is that it was because of his strict father, due to whom he didn't have a normal childhood. I wasn't a Jacko fan. I never bought any of his albums or singles.

His songs: As I said, I do like his music. It's hard to pick a favourite because there are so many good songs. Dirty Diana was always one I loved and it's getting played on the radio here quite frequently at the moment. I can name 3 that I hate: The Earth Song, Heal the world and You are not alone. So in general I like his older releases more than the recent ones. And I don't think there would have been good stuff to come if he had lived longer.

Now I feel mean and cold-hearted. Hm. But I just know that I was much more shocked by the deaths of Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix in the 90s because they were so young and had a creative future ahead of them.

What else: I've updated the "Stuff I like on TV" section (I know that's not the correct name. Whatever.). Life is taking a summer break. They've interrupted the 2nd season after ep 6 and started from the beginning again. And Without a Trace is back on the air but the order of the eps is messed up. I'm also still watching German telenovela Alisa and have discovered recently that the male lead looks very much like German tennis player Tommy Haas so I've tried to watch as many of his matches in Wimbledon as possible (which wasn't easy because they tended to start in the early afternoon when I was still at work).

Weekends

After 2 weekends away, I'm back. Okay, I've been back all week, but too busy to post. Although the work week wasn't too stressful, but still I'm exhausted in the evenings. Especially my eyes feel strained. Add an optometrist (?) to the list of doctors I need to see.

Anyway ... one weekend I was at Lake Constance with my family. Weather sucked for the most part. Friday night was cool and cloudy but okay. Saturday it rained all the time and we were soaked after 2 hours of strolling through the shopping streets of the old town of Lindau. Sunday was sunny so we walked around in Wasserburg and played some minigolf.

The other weekend I went to see a friend who just moved to a new (and beautiful!) apartment. It was so good to spend some time with her and also with another friend I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

So this weekend I'm taking it slow. Have been doing laundry, had my sister and her boyfriend over for a little while, met a former classmate/friend for a drink at night, had icecream twice in one day (how scandalous!) watched TV, etc. Blah.

Nie mehr 2. Liga!

Naja, zumindest nicht bis zum nächsten Abstieg … hehe … aber momentan ist die Laune bei mir als Club-Fan sehr gut. Hatte kurzfristig Karten bekommen für das Spiel der Spiele (Relegation, Rückspiel mit einem 3:0 aus dem Hinspiel im Rücken) und es war so geil im Stadion am Sonntag. Beste Stimmung, die ich dort je erlebt hab – und das Wetter hat auch gepasst. In der ersten Halbzeit hab ich noch ein bisschen gezittert, trotz des 3:0 Vorsprungs – beim Club weiß man ja nie … er ist ja bekanntlich ein Depp … Aber dann fiel nach einer halben Stunde das 1:0 und endlich traute sich die Nordkurve, „Nie mehr 2. Liga“ anzustimmen. Die restlichen Minuten der 1. Halbzeit wurde ununterbrochen gesungen und die Welle ging mehrmals ums ganze Stadion. Schööön!

Zweite Halbzeit war dann aufm Platz nicht mehr wirklich viel los. Kann man ihnen auch nicht verdenken, nachdem es inzwischen 2:0 stand. Nur ne Rauchbombe bzw. Rumgeknalle im Cottbusser Block trübte kurzzeitig die Stimmung und die Sicht aufs Feld. Aber wir Zuschauer vertrieben uns mit weiteren Gesängen und rhythmischem Klatschen die Zeit.

Nach Abpfiff wurde dann der Rasen gestürmt – war eh klar, da kann der Stadionsprecher noch so viel an das Verständnis der Zuschauer appellieren. Ich bin allerdings brav auf meinem super Platz geblieben. Hat dann etwas gedauert, bis die Mannschaft sich auf einer Art Balkon auf der Haupttribüne wieder zeigte – dank farbigen Anzeigentafeln bzw. Videoleinwänden konnte man auch von der Gegengerade gut sehen, was dort vor sich ging. Dabei hat sich wieder mal gezeigt, dass Fußballer keine großen Redner sind. Hehe. Es sei ihnen verziehen.

Ungefähr ne Dreiviertelstunde nach Spielende haben wir uns dann auf den Heimweg gemacht. War nicht mal Gequetsche in der S-Bahn – ich hatte sogar hin und zurück einen Sitzplatz.

Zu den Fangesängen muss ich übrigens sagen, neben Altbekanntem wie dem Vereinslied „Die Legende lebt“, oder „Oh wie ist das schön“ oder Sprechchören wie „Hier regiert der FCN“ gab es auch einige Sachen, wo ich trotz genauem Hinhören nicht richtig verstanden habe, was die Fans mir sagen wollten. Hab bei einem Lied immer nur „FCKW“ verstanden, aber das kann ja nicht sein. Hm. Seltsam. Ist wieder typisch für mich, dass ich nicht aufs Spiel, sondern auf die "Musik" achte, haha.

Aber alles in allem hatte ich nen super Nachmittag und freu mich total, dass der Club wieder erstklassig ist. Wobei einige Kollegen meinen, mit dieser extrem jungen Mannschaft werden wir uns in der 1. Liga ziemlich umschauen. Naja, müssen wir uns halt noch mit ein paar erfahrenen Spielern verstärken, dann können wir uns vielleicht länger als ein Jahr da oben halten. Mal sehen.

Immer dasselbe ...

Hab heute mal 98.8 Kiss FM aus Berlin gehört. Dabei sind mir 2 Sachen aufgefallen:
Wie planet radio aus Frankfurt nennen sie ihr Funkhaus / ihre Räumlichkeiten “Tower”. Klingt ja sooo cool. Was die Musik angeht, sind die beiden sich recht ähnlich. Aber die Moderatoren bei planet sind weniger krass und daher für mich angenehmer/erträglicher (obwohl ich ja altersmäßig schon etwas über die Kernzielgruppe hinaus bin, glaub ich). Jedenfalls war das mein erster Höreindruck.

Und offenbar hat Hitradio N1 hier in Nürnberg sich beim Namen seiner Morningshow von den Berlinern inspirieren lassen (um’s mal höflich auszudrücken). Oder war’s gar andersrum? Kann nicht beurteilen, wer den Begriff „knallwach“ zuerst benutzt hat. Naja. Hätte man sich denken können, dass sowas bei mehr als einem Sender auftaucht. Ist ja bei den meisten Sachen so, z.B. bei diversen Gewinnspielen und Aktionen.

Jetzt hör ich gerade 97.1 AMP Radio aus Los Angeles. Der Aussage einer befreundeten Amerikanerin, dass man in Deutschland musikalisch den USA ein halbes Jahr hinterher hinkt, kann ich beim hören von AMP keinesfalls zustimmen – da laufen genau wie hier (z.B. auf den oben genannten planet und Kiss) dieselben Titel von Lady GaGa, Kid Cudi, Ne-Yo usw.

Was die Frequenz von AMP angeht, mit der ist man ja in Nürnberg und Umgebung bestens vertraut – wegen Gong 97.1, wie N1 ein Sender des Funkhaus Nürnberg – nicht, dass ich ein Riesen-Fan von denen wäre, aber zumindest versorgen sie mich mit vielen Infos und Live-Übertragungen zum 1.FCN und lokalen Verkehrs- und Wettermeldungen.

Zu den US-Radiosendern wollte ich noch sagen: es leuchtet mit nicht ganz ein, wieso manche Streams von Deutschland aus gehen und man auf andere nicht zugreifen darf. In England ist es so ähnlich. Komisch.

More good music

Seems it's been a good week for good new songs. Some of my current faves:

Noisettes - Don't upset the rhythm. Groovy, although the band name reminds me of chocolate
David Guetta & Kelly Rowland - When love takes over. Catchy dance stuff with a piano that reminds me of Coldplay.
Jack's Mannequin - The resolution. Found this on YouTube. No, wait, I think I saw it in the Swiss Airplay charts. Sounds a bit like The Fray. Check out the live acoustic version here.
Kerli - Walking on Air. A little strange but catchy. She looks like Lady GaGa but her sound is more ... I don't know ... floating or something. Ha, not the best description. Sorry.
Daniel Merriweather - Change. British babyface. Cool song. Reminds me slightly of The Script but it's less melancholy. Is that an adjective? Sigh. Whatever. Groovy, baby! So now I'm quoting Austin Powers. I'm scaring myself. Heh.

I bet my formatting is different once again. Argh. Whatever. Blah.

Eurovision

As every year in the middle of May, the Eurovision Song Contest took place last night in Moscow. I still think of it as the Grand Prix because it used to be called Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson or something like that. Anyway … I watched it kind of half-heartedly. Norway won. I’d read beforehand that they were expected to do very well and had seen the song online. It was a very clear win. I don’t mind. It’s a sweet catchy song by a young man with a boyish face and a violin. In second place was Iceland. Their song was a heart-wrenching (but not too depressing) ballad by a young lady called Yohanna who looked very pretty with her reddish-blond hair and blue dress. So it seems that this year the crazy stage show was not as popular as the years before which is definitely a good thing. I also liked Portugal’s song which was kind of folkloristic with lots of acoustic instruments such as guitar, percussion and flute and a beautiful melancholy melody. Denmark had a song written by Ronan Keating - BTW, where was Ireland?? Eliminated in the semi-final?? – and sung by a guy called Brinck who sounded very much like Ronan, too. That was almost it with the “normal” songs. Okay, there was GB, too, with a song by Andrew Lloyd Webber who also played the piano during the performance. The singer was a lady called Jade Ewen I think. Great voice. Oh, and France with Patricia Kaas. I love her deep voice but the song wasn’t very catchy.

The rest was crazy dancing and wild rhythms and half-naked people. Or just plain awful songs like ours. The “German” team was made up of producer/DJ Alex Christensen and 2 Americans: musical singer Oscar Loya (who I’ve never heard of before – he was in West Side Story apparently) and strip dancer (although she probably wouldn’t like to be called that) Dita von Teese. Oscar’s outfit consisted of a pair of silver sequin leggings – nobody male or female should ever wear such an atrocity – and a black shirt which he ripped open half way through the song to show off his hairless chest and sixpack. Come to think of it, he looked quite a bit like Barbie Ken. Not the type of man I like. And Dita …. Well, she rode on a black thing in the background which kind of was a mix of a sofa in the shape of a pair of lips and an electric bull. For the first half of the song I thought the Russians had decided to keep her off-camera completely but then she came into the center of the stage and danced next to Oscar in one of her typical black underwear thingies. What a ridiculous attempt to win votes by putting something sexy on stage. But the song … Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. Vomit-inducing, believe me. And totally annoying. To be honest, I though the fact that I hated it meant that our chances weren’t so bad. Glad I was wrong. We ended up fifth from the bottom or something (at number 20 out of 25 countries).

New rockin' tunes

Surprise – I actually like a Reamonn song! It’s the new one Moments Like This. Full of positive energy and very catchy. This and Josephine and Serpentine are the only ones I really like, the rest of their stuff is just kinda lame.

Other new good stuff:
Green Day – Know your enemy. It rocks, that’s why.
Sunrise Avenue – The whole story
Offspring – Kristy are you doing okay. I think they played at Rock im Park last year and looked awful and didn’t sound too good either, but this one’s VERY catchy and not bad. The other new one You’re gonna go far kid is quite good as well.
U2 - Magnificent. Hated Get on your boots, the first single off the new album, but this one is great.

Guess the list needs more formatting. Can't be bothered. Still in the office but about to leave. See ya!

DSDS 6

Die Staffel ist fast zu Ende und ich hab mich noch nicht dazu geäußert. Schande, haha. Nee, liegt wohl daran, dass das Ganze langweilig ist. Ich guck zwar, fiebere aber nicht mit und mach meistens nebenbei was anderes oder schau nur die Wiederholung am Sonntag.

Aber ein paar Sachen hab ich doch zu sagen. Kommen wir also zu den Top 4 Kandidaten:

Dominik (der ja gestern – oder war’s schon nach Mitternacht? – rausgewählt wurde): Netter Junge. Den Vorwurf, er gehöre nicht auf eine Bühne und sei langweilig, fand ich teilweise unfair. Okay, am Anfang hat er fast ausschließlich James Blunt Titel gesungen, und DSDS ist nun mal kein Imitatoren-Wettbewerb. Aber andererseits hat doch auf der Bühne stehen und Musik machen nicht zwangsweise mit großer Bühnenshow oder großen Gesten oder Tanzeinlagen zu tun, auch wenn das die Jury oft so darstellt. In der Musikbranche gibt es eben Rampensäue und stillere Musiker und beide haben ihre Berechtigung. Dominik hat eben Songs von Künstlern aus letzterer Kategorie gesungen, wie von Jack Johnson, Travis usw. Kommt halt im Fernsehen nicht so gut. Pech. Seine Stimme fand ich okay und ihn sympathisch. Aber mit 17 ist er noch sehr jung und ich bin mir eh sehr unsicher, ob man irgendjemandem überhaupt den Sieg bei DSDS wünschen sollte, also kann er froh sein, ausgeschieden zu sein. Er sollte mal schauen, ob er selber Songs schreiben kann, vielleicht wird’s dann noch was mit der Sänger-Karriere in ein paar Jahren.

Sarah: Tolle Stimme, keine Frage. Ich find’s aber bedenklich, dass sie so gut wie null Englisch kann. Ist net so glaubwürdig, wenn man den Text nur übers Hörverständnis nachsingt, ohne zu wissen, was die Worte bedeuten. Klar, sie legt in ihre Stimme viel Gefühl, aber ich frag mich echt immer, ob sie versteht, worum es in dem jeweiligen Lied geht. Naja.

Daniel: er ist der Einzige, dessen Stimme diesen Wiedererkennungswert hat, von dem immer alle reden. Und ich mag Stimmen wie seine. Soulig, tief, samtig, und ne gute Kopfstimme. Wie er Sweet Dreams von den Eurythmics gesungen hat vor ein paar Wochen, das war schon super. Und es freut mich für ihn, dass er durch die Sendung mehr Selbstbewusstsein bekommen hat nachdem er wohl in der Schule ziemlich fies behandelt wurde. Außerdem scheint er am Boden geblieben zu sein, so was find ich auch immer sympathisch. Er erinnert mich am meisten an den Vorjahressieger Thomas Godoj, aber auch der ist ja inzwischen in der Versenkung verschwunden, so dass man sich echt fragen muss, ob man irgendjemandem dessen Stimme man mag, den Sieg bei DSDS ernsthaft wünschen sollte. Manchmal wurde vielleicht der Siegertitel ein paar Mal im Radio gespielt, aber danach kam nix. Schon komisch.

Und die Vierte im Bunde: Annemarie. Eigentlich hat die Show sie als Siegerin verdient, auch wenn die Jury sie mit schlechter Kritik überschüttet. Ha. Ich weiß, ich bin zynisch. Sie hat es voll drauf, sich auf der Bühne zu präsentieren und hat wohl einen Deal mit der BILD-Zeitung. Ein Unterwäsche-Shoot pro Woche oder so, haha. Wat weiß ich. Medien-Hure nenn ich so was. Die Amis würden es wahrscheinlich anerkennend professionell nennen. Ich find sie erschreckend abgebrüht. Wie wird man so? Und was kann man noch glauben? Ist sie die Hexe / Zicke / Intrigantin, als die die anderen Kandidaten sehen? Ich denke, sie ist auf jeden Fall ein verwöhntes Einzelkind mit dem unbedingten Willen, ein Star zu werden. Aber dass 10-jährige Mädchen sie für ihren Kampfgeist bewundern …. Das find ich bedenklich. Passt aber nur zu dem ganzen Konzept und der Show. Was ihre Stimme angeht, na ja, nicht schlecht, aber sie hat nix einzigartiges.

Ich find’s eh schade, dass Teenager es nach wie vor total erstrebenswert finden, bei dieser Sendung oder ähnlichen Casting-Formaten mitzumachen. Sie sollten sich echt mal vor Augen führen, was aus den bisherigen Gewinnern und auch anderen Teilnehmern geworden ist – nämlich nicht viel. Und trotzdem will offenbar jeder Superstar werden. Uff. Klar wird man so schnell einer breiten Öffentlichkeit bekannt, aber meiner Meinung nach wäre es für jemanden, dem Musik wirklich am Herzen liegt, besser, einen anderen Weg zu einem Plattenvertrag zu suchen, als so eine Show, wo man im Prinzip verheizt und dann allein gelassen wird. Sprach der große Moralapostel, der aber selber die Sendungen anschaut und damit dazu beiträgt, dass sie weiter laufen. Obwohl, zu meiner Verteidigung, die letzte Popstars Staffel hab ich nicht geschaut. Gaaanz toll. Und das Supertalent auch nicht. Und auf Pro7 sucht Germany’s next Showstar mit DJ Bobo (schon immer einer meiner „totalen“ Lieblinge) kann ich auch wirklich verzichten …

Kurzes Update

Hatte ein paar Tage frei, über Ostern sowieso und auch jetzt ein verlängertes Wochenende. Tut gut. Nur die Bauarbeiten gegenüber machen nach wie vor Lärm.

Am Freitag hatte mein PC nen Virus. Super. Läuft aber alles normal und daher weigere ich mich, das System neu aufzusetzen. Mal ganz abgesehen davon, dass ich bisher keine Recovery CD erstellt hatte und mich mit "Neu-Aufsetzen" auch wenig auskenn. Mal abwarten. Jedenfalls nervt sowas, vor allem wenn der Komplett-Scan 5 Std dauert und man ihn blöderweise erst abends um 20 Uhr startet ...

Dann war ich sowohl Samstag als auch Sonntag Abend außer Haus. Neuer Rekord. Samstag hab ich mal wieder festgestellt, dass meine Flirt-Fähigkeiten so ziemlich gleich null sind. Oder ich einfach zu zynisch bin. Hätte nämlich einem sicher 5-10 Jahre jüngeren Typen, der wollte, dass ich die Leute, mit denen ich in der "Lounge" oder wie man sowas heutzutage nennt war, dazu überrede, zu einer Privatparty bei ihm zu kommen, am liebsten ins Gesicht gesagt, was er denn eigentlich bitte will. Was Ernsthaftes von mir? Ja klar. Was von meiner Freundin, die verliebt mit ihrem Freund rumturtelte? Sicher auch nicht. Hm. Tanzen wollte er. Zu spät, da war ich schon am Gehen. Hehe. Wie auch immer.

Gestern war ich bei einem Klassikradio Filmmusik-Konzert. Seeehr schöööön.

TV-Update:
Grey's Anatomy Staffel 5 fing besser an, als ich gedacht hatte. Die 2 befürchteten Dramen aus der Vorschau waren nur ein Alptraum bzw. ne Verarschung, also ist Derek weder schwer verletzt noch Rose von ihm schwanger. Mal sehen, wie die Staffel sich weiter entwickelt. Nicht so toll, soweit ich gehört hab.

Gossip Girl läuft endlich auch in Deutschland. Hab wie immer an den Synchronsprechern einiges auszusetzen. Naja. Die Serie ist trotzdem cool, auch wenn die meisten Figuren halb so alt sind wie ich. Aber ich find eh den Vater von Dan und Jenny am attraktivsten. Einziges Problem: Rufus Humphrey?! Gibt es nen un-sexy-eren Namen?! Leider ist seine Synchronstimme eine derer, die ich für fehlbesetzt halte. Seufz.

Yeeha!! (again)

Ha, it worked! Have to edit the About part, tough. And add the widgets I had before.

I have done ZERO today and still feel tired. Damn. But at least my blog looks pretty now, hehe.

Managed to fix the coment problem (you can't comment if comment format is set as embedded) by setting them as pop-up. Also added the trackback thingy although I can't imagine anybody would trackback to me.

People who use this template also seem to be having problems with image-wrapping, but as I hardly ever post pics I don't really mind.

What's still not working is the recent articles / recent comments thing which should be below the About section. Also seems to be caused by changes Blogger made. Whatever.

Ha, not my fault ...

Guess I should have read the comments on the page where I downloaded the Dilectio template first. The problem I encountered is caused by recent changes Blogger made, as can be read here. I'll try the solution they suggest, but if that doesn't work I'll go back to Rounders or some other template.

Still, this annoys me to no end.

Better but not good

As you can see I managed to use the Dilectio template ... but the middle column is not as it should be (red and orange with a search box and about area as can be seen here in the demo).

I manually deleted the searchbox and about thing in the html code but maybe I should just have changed the type to css or xml or whatever. But before that there were those 2 other error messages I got about the recent posts and recent comments widgets so I deleted those manually as well. Apart from the red and orange box in the middle column, some navigation should be showing up above this left text column. Oh I hate it when nothing works properly and you can't find any good instructions on how to fix this.

God, I'm tired. It's past midnight. Must sleep. Will try to fix this Sunday morning or so.

Messed up templates

So I wanted a template that looks less like winter and more like spring. But all sorts of error messages came up with the 2 templates I tried (notepad chaos and dilectio). I wish I knew some html to allow me to fix the problem. The colorvoid template I had before still works, but I don't want to go back to that. Damn.

Immer diese Autofahrer

Oh Mann, bin ich froh, dass ich zuhause bin und es irgendwie geschafft hab, keinen Unfall zu haben.

Mein Auto verhält sich immer noch seltsam, so dass ich an jeder Ampel denke, es säuft mir ab (und das bei nem Automatik). Das Ganze hebt meine Stimmung nicht gerade. Aber in die Werkstatt, in der ich letztens war, will ich eigentlich nicht nochmal. Obwohl ich die eigentlich zusammenstauchen müsste, dass alles schlimmer geworden ist als vor der Inspektion. Aber dazu bin ich ein zu großer Schisser.

Naja, jedenfalls hat heut früh kurz nachdem ich losgefahren war jemand in meiner Nähe gehupt und die Frau an der Ampel in der Spur neben mir hat rübergeguckt. Bin mir nicht bewusst, irgendwas falsch gemacht zu haben, keine Ahnung, ob ich gemeint war oder ob sie überhaupt gehupt hatte oder was weiß ich. Dann war noch ein Auffahrunfall auf dem Weg in die Arbeit, der kurz bevor ich an der Ecke vorbei kam, passiert sein muss.

Aber das war alles nix gegen meinen Heimweg. Okay, es waren über 20 Grad, aber mir war nicht bewusst, dass heute die Osterferien anfangen (ich dachte, das ist erst nächste Woche). Also war noch mehr Verkehr als sonst an einem Freitag gegen 17 Uhr. Kurz nachdem ich aus dem Ort, wo ich arbeite, rausgefahren war, sah ich schon auf einer Autobahnbrücke, über die ich fahren muss, die Feuerwehr. Aber dort ist es zweispurig, also dachte ich, ich komm vorbei. Hinter mir kam dann auch noch ein weiteres Feuerwehrauto angedüst. Aber es war nix mit Geradeausfahren und ich musste auf die Autobahn, die ich gerade verlassen hatte, wieder auffahren, wie die Polizei mir zuwinkte. Okay, bin ich also direkt in der Einfahrt geblieben, die auch ne Ausfahrt ist, weil da 2 Autobahnausfahrten ganz kurz hintereinander kommen. Ha, aber da war auch Polizei und ein Unfall. Panik. Wo führt die Autobahn hin, wenn ich geradeaus weiterfahren muss, anstatt rechts rauszufahren?? Hilfe. Aber ich konnte dann hinter dem Unfall doch noch rausbiegen. Uff. Dann kam der Stadtverkehr-Stau. Toll. Dann ging's besser, aber in den engen zugeparkten Kopfsteinpflaster-Sträßchen hier in meiner Ecke von Nürnberg war dann so ne Vespa-Fahrerin hinter mir. Ich fahr halt vorsichtig, weil wie gesagt die Straßen am Rand voll parkender Autos stehen und die Fahrbahn an einigen Stellen verengt ist. Und ich lass halt die entgegenkommenden Autos durch, da ich nicht rücksichtslos rumbrettere. Dann kam ne Straßenecke, wo mehrere Mütter mit ihren kleinen Kindern standen. Ich fahr so und hör Frauengeschrei. Dachte, es ist eine der Mütter. Aber als ich dann links in meine Straße eingebogen bin und die Vespa hinter mir geradeaus weiterfuhr, ging das Geschrei weiter. Ich glaub, die Vespafahrerin wollte mir irgendwas sagen ... tja, hab aufgrund des Radios und des Motorengeräuschs aber nix verstanden. Wenn ich nicht Schiebedach und Fenster offen gehabt hätte, hätte ich wahrscheinlich nicht mal gemerkt, dass sie was von mir will. Keine Ahnung, was ihr nicht gepasst hat. Kann mir nur denken, dass es meine vorsichtige Fahrweise war. Pffff. Aber irgendwie hat mich die ganze Heimfahrt ziemlich geärgert und fertig gemacht und mir die Wochendend-Laune versaut. Alles Deppen. Kein Wunder, dass ich am liebsten meine Wohnung nicht verlasse. Und dass bei dem tollen Wetter ... seufz.

Kings of Leon

I know they’ve been around for a while but I only heard about them a few months ago. My best friend entered their song Sex on Fire as her current favourite song in one of these meme / questionnaire things I had sent her and I had no idea what she was talking about. You know, we’re a bit behind here in Bavaria : ) Of course they’d been playing that song for a while on 1Live in NRW. They never really played in on the radio here. Well, maybe on NRJ or Star FM. Anyway ... I liked it and the new single Use Somebody even more. Bought the album. Have only listened to it once so far to be honest.

Anyway, the band played a few concerts in Germany recently. And 1Live arranged a special concert in a movie theatre (I think – at least it was a small location called the Gloria) in Cologne which they recorded and showed on TV last Sunday night. I taped it and watched it a couple of days ago.

My thoughts:
- Why does the band wait 45 minutes before they say hi to the audience??? I also wish they’d introduced some of the songs (such as saying this song is called Charmer and it’s from our 3rd album or whatever). But they’re probably too immersed in their music to do any of that.

- Two of the guys must be vampires. For one, Nathan, the drummer. He was lit in a way that made him look very pale and with his long dark hair he kinda looked like the guy from The Crow movie. And Jared, the bass player, has a hair style just like Robert Pattinson in Twilight, so that made him my second vampire. Hehe.

- It was at times painful to watch Caleb, the singer. You can see that in the Use Somebody video as well. His face looks like he’s suffering through the song. And he hardly ever smiles at all. Only caught him smiling once in the whole show. Okay, this is not High School Musical feel good music, but come on ...

- I also found it hard to understand the lyrics most of the time. I felt like he could have been singing in Swedish or French and it wouldn’t have made a difference to me.

- I was surprised they played a lot of older songs. I was expecting more or less only the songs from the current album.

I know all of this sounds very negative, but those were just little things I noticed. I still like KoL. Caleb has a unique voice I like a lot and their songs are very intense and that’s both good.

Insert witty heading here

This is just my general blah.

I've had some car problems for a while. Have found a garage now that isn't too far from where I work. Things aren't quite fixed yet, but it's nothing major, just some electronic problem left to be repaired.

What else? Hm, not much really. This week a new telenovela started on TV. I didn't really want to watch it, I was just curious about the cast and everything, but now of course I find the male lead pretty attractive and will keep watching. It's supposed to air for a year and I hope they won't drag it out forever, but end it after the initially announced 240 episodes. Oh, BTW, the show is called Alisa - Folge deinem Herzen (Follow your heart). Awwww ... hehe. I know, the storylines and characters are all very predictable, but I still enjoy watching it when I get home from work. I guess you call that escapism, but I've got a right to have that. And I prefer telenovelas to the never-ending daily soaps because they've got one couple in the center and a guaranteed happy end is in sight.

Can't think of anything else to post now. Oh, wait, I wanted to write about the new season of Germany's Next Topmodel. Very short version of that post: I hate Tessa and my prediction for the winner (or in other words, the girl I want to win at the moment) is Marie.

Music awards and some random stuff

Just some random stuff:

Wanted to post my thoughts on the Grammy Awards even though it's been a couple of weeks now. Anyway: Coldplay totally deserved to win song of the year (or was it record of the year? The categories are kind of confusing with song, record, and album) for Viva la Vida because that song manages to make you smile even if you've been crying 5 minutes before. And of course because Coldplay rock anyway. Can't understand why they didn't win anything at the Brit Awards this week. But back to the Grammys. Jonas Brothers sucked even more than I expected. Katy Perry can't sing, especially not when she's jumping around at the same time. The performances I enjoyed were Justin Timberlake with Al Green, Neil Diamond, Radiohead, Kanye West & Estelle and the Motown medley by some old and some young guys.

Speaking of the Brit Awards, they were not shown on German TV so I only read about them - and watched Kings of Leon play Use somebody on YouTube. They rock, too. And Duffy deserved to win.

Tonight, the German music award show Echo took place (and is still going on on the telly behind me). Don't think anything of interest happened. Oh no, wait, Razorlight performed Wire to Wire which I loved.

Will tape the Oscars tomorrow night. Hugh Jackman, yay!

What else? It's still very cold and snowy here. I still haven't taken my car to a place where the electronics problems might be fixed. I still haven't planned any vacation for this year and I still haven't bought any boots or ski pants for the weekend in the snow I'm supposed to go on in mid-March with my co-workers although I so don't feel like it. Argh.

More on Bale

I guess I was the last person to talk about the Bale incident. Apparently, it made huge waves on February 3. So much so that it was even featured on one of the websites in my links section, Mashable. I find that kind of strange cos Mashable normally deals with new mobile apps or online music services or social media in general.

They call Bale's rant a "social media going mainstream" event. Sorry, but I don't get it. What does Bale's meltdown have to do with social media? The audio file was first posted on gossip site TMZ, not by a blogger or facebook user or something similar. I guess what Mashable means is that people talked about it very much using social media such as Twitter. I still find it strange.

A day later, Mashable asked the same questions that came to my mind in the entry I posted yesterday, i.e., was it all a publicity stunt? I still believe it wasn't because this is Christian Bale we're talking about. He's always been a very private person who hardly ever attends awards shows or parties and still hasn't officially released the name of his daughter. Since he became part of the new Batman franchise, he's become a much bigger name than before and has been seen more at movie biz events (at least that's my impression). But I still won't believe that he would have agreed to letting that tape be used to promote Terminator 4 because it really puts him in a VERY bad light. Yes, there are those that say even bad press is good press, but Bale really doesn't need that. He's probably in a better position as far as being able to chose his film projects goes than ever before. And as I said, he's not someone who enjoys the limelight.

What might be possible (as I mentioned yesterday) is that the studio couldn't stop the tape from being put online and forced him to apologize. The standard way would probably be an official statement, but maybe making him call in on a radio station is version 2.0 of that. Hm. I'm not sure, but here, too, I like to believe that Bale wouldn't be part of such a manipulation.

I guess I still care more about him than I thought. But it's not just that, it's also that I don't like to be manipulated by the media and that I'm curious to find out the truth behind stories - which is hard because I'm just a normal person with hardly more knowledge about what really goes on behind the scenes of the media businees than most people.

Rambling mode over. Move along and enjoy your Sunday.

How often can you say the f-word in 4 minutes?

Very often, apparently. So, what am I talking about? Christian Bale totally freaking out on the set of Terminator 4 a.k.a. Terminator: Salvation back in July. One report of the original incident here. I think what happened was that the director of photography walked through the background of a scene they were just shooting and Christian didn’t like that at all, to say the least.

Now, why does this matter more than half a year later? Because now the audio to go with Christian’s rant has become available. It goes on for more than FOUR MINUTES. And as I said, the f-word is in it probably 100 times, if not 1000. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a long-time fan of Christian’s and am not surprised or shocked because he is known to be very intense. What I find interesting is his accent, which now seems to be a mixture of English and American. Okay, so everybody is appalled by Christian’s behaviour and the incident was even reported on German TV (Exklusiv on RTL). Whatever. Let’s move on to the good sides of the story:

The remix. I find it hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing when I heard it.

The mash-up: Maybe even funnier. It mashes the trailer for Disney musical Newsies (the first film I saw Christian in back in 1992– awww, so cute!) with bits of the remixed meltdown. Simply amazing.

His apology: He actually called in on an L.A. radio show himself and tried to explain everything. Wow. I mean, he could have just made his agent release a statement or something similar. But no, not him. As I said, he’s intense and passionate and real because he’s not perfect and makes mistakes like everybody else. Okay, if I was more cynical than I am I could say this was just a way to promote the Terminator movie because he does say how great it turned out and so on. Or I could say he was forced by the studio to apologize in public. But I’m not that cynical (yet) and I do want to give him the benefit of the doubt and I like to believe that he is genuine. I'm not sure I'd want to run into him on a bad day cos I believe he can be a little scary, but I continue to see him as a good guy deep down. Yup. And his explanation that they were filming a difficult scene where he was trying to portray a certain craziness does make sense. End of my praise of the wonderfulness that in my eyes is CB. : )

Okay, have to add something: there's another clip which I don't find very funny, to be honest (most of all because I don't know who Bill O'Reilly is) but if you scroll down to the comments, you'll find someone saying "Christian Bale has nothing on Klaus Kinski." with a link to a YouTube clip of Klaus Kinski going off against director Werner Herzog back in the 70s (?). Oh boy, it's a small world. Here's why: just yesterday in the office, my boss brought that up. I can't remember at all in what context, but he started walking from his office to his co-worker's office (with my room being in the middle between the 2) and he was talking about crazy Klaus Kinski freaking out on sets and not answering questions on talk shows etc. I think there's a whole documentary feature about Herzog's and Kinski's difficult times on the set of a film called Aguirre. So when my boss brought this up, what came to my mind was of course that CB has also worked with Werner Herzog - on a film called Rescue Dawn. I haven't seen it and it's just been released on DVD here I think. Hm. Small world, isn't it? Everything's connected. Sigh.

Gut kopiert ist halb gewonnen?

Sat.1 kopiert, Teil 1:
Klinik am Alex, eine neue Arztserie (immer Do, ca. 22:15), die sich munter bei Grey's Anatomy bedient.

Beweisstück A: Im Mittelpunkt steht eine junge Assistenzärztin, die in einer neuen Klinik anfängt und Ellen Pompeo ähnlich sieht. Sie hat zwar nicht gleich mit ihrem Chef geschlafen, aber zwischen ihr und Dr. Stephan Roth (naja, mit Patrick Dempsey kann Andreas Brucker nicht mithalten) gibt es von Anfang an ne gewisse Spannung.

Beweisstück B: die Verwendung von Snow Patrol Songs. Während es bei Grey's Anatomy Chasing Cars war, beginnt Klinik am Alex mit Shut your eyes und hat als Titellied Crack the Shutters. TOTAL subtil. Die Instrumentalmusik erinnerte mich außerdem stellenweise stark an Emergency Room.

Beweisstück C: neben der Hauptfigur erinnern auch diverse andere Charaktere an das US-Vorbild, z.B. die ehrgeizige Exotin (nicht mit asiatischen wie Cristina, sondern Deutsch-Türkin) oder die fiese Chefin (Dr. Bailey bzw. Prof. Rehfeld) oder die mitfühlende Blondine, die sich rumschubsen lasst (Izzie bzw. Doris Manefeld).

Naja. Mal abwarten, ob ich das weiterhin gucken werde. Oder wie lang sich die Serie im Programm hält. Die Einschaltquoten der 1. Folge waren nicht berauschend. Und mit dem anderen US-Klon Dr. Molly und Karl (Abklatsch von Dr. House) landete Sat.1 auch nen Flop.

Sat.1 kopiert, Teil 2:
Oder auch: Sat.1 recycelt seine eigenen Shows. Früher hieß es Mann oh Mann, jetzt heißt es Mister Perfect - Der Männer-Test. Ist aber exakt dasselbe in grün. Die männlichen Kandidaten müssen einige Aufgaben meistern und sich dann von der Jury und dem 100% weiblichen Publikum bewerten lassen, bis ein Sieger übrigbleibt. Ich fand's irgendwie schon ganz amüsant, muss ich zugeben. Wie schon früher bei Mann oh Mann flogen selbstverliebte Schönlinge recht schnell raus, während sympathische "Normalos" bessere Chancen hatten. Charme siegt. Und das ist nicht schlecht.

More new music

Good:
Dan Wilson - Breathless: Heard it on South-Eastern European radio stations recently. Loved it, googled it, turns out it's the singer of Semisonic, a band I really liked at the end of 90s / in the early 00s (okay, that looks very strange ...) Hope it'll catch on here soon. Check out his myspace page.

Bad:
Pussycat Dolls & Snoop Dog - Bottle Pop: Ugh. Nuff said. Go away.

Katy Perry - Thinking of you: she sounds like Alanis Morissette or Avril Lavigne in this ballad and I don't mean this as a compliment. She just can't sing and annoys me.

Tie:
Kelly Clarkson - My life would suck without you: Romantic title. Ha. She's trying to sound like Katy Perry, or at least the song is in a I kissed a girl/Hot n cold style. Not good. I used to like Kelly. Hm.

DSDS

Am Mittwoch hat die neue DSDS Staffel angefangen. Uah. Und Bohlen hat schon einen neuen Jury-Kollegen rausgeekelt (ging ja im Sommer, als die Castings stattfanden, schon durch die Presse). Aber wie ... Intoleranz hoch 10.

Also: Der neue Juror war Sänger und Schauspieler Max von Thun. Das Fass zum Überlaufen brachte laut der Sendung am Mittwoch ein Typ, der Umbrella von Rihanna mit Gitarre sang. Max fand's ganz gut und sagte, es war das 1. Mal, dass ihn Umbrella nicht genervt hat. Das konnte der liebe Dieter nun gar nicht verstehen, hat sich der Song doch millionenfach verkauft und war ein Riesenhit. Seufz. Bohlen findet also alles, was erfolgreich ist, automatisch toll und lässt es nicht durchgehen, dass jemand seine Meinung nicht teilt. Oh Mann. Davon, dass man über Geschmack streiten kann, hat er wohl noch nie was gehört. Es gibt genug Songs, die im Prinzip nicht schlecht sind, die einen dann aber wenn man sie stündlich im Radio hört, wirklich nerven. Ob das in diesem Fall bei Max von Thun so war, hat er nicht gesagt, aber Bohlens Einstellung ist so typisch. Für ihn zählt nur, was kommerziell erfolgreich ist und dagegen darf man dann nix sagen. Das kam bei ihm schon öfter durch und nervt mich echt. Muss ich also ... was weiß ich ... Jurassic Park oder Armageddon oder irgendeinen anderen erfolgreichen Film unbedingt gut finden? So ein Quatsch! Ich darf doch wohl ne andere Meinung haben. Muss ja nicht bedeuten, dass der Film oder Song schlecht gemacht ist, aber das garantiert ja nicht, dass er mir gefällt.

Irgendwie ist das so logisch, dass ich gar nicht weiß, wie ich's überhaupt erklären soll oder wieso Bohlen das nicht checkt. Genauso nervt, dass er Kandidaten sofort unterbricht, wenn sie ein Lied singen, das er nicht kennt. Er soll doch die Stimme beurteilen und nicht die Imitation des Originals.

Egal, jedenfalls ist jetzt so ein Plattenfirma-Typ (u.a. Manager des vor-vorherigen Gewinners Mark Medlock) der Neue in der Jury. Wer weiß, ob der "Umbrella" Vorfall wirklich der Grund war oder ob Bohlen von Thun einfach nicht leiden konnte. Argh.

New music for the new year

Haven't made a list of new songs I like in a while. Guess now that I've got an iPod (only a Shuffle and I haven't really used it yet) I could call this "What's on my iPod" ... well, anyway, here come my song recs (not all brand new but still current):

James Morrison & Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings: Lovely duet. His voice is like velvet at the beginning of the song. A bit similar to James Blunt but less whiney kitschy. Like the lyrics as well: "You can't play on broken strings, you can't feel anything that your heart don't want to feel". Ha, grammar! Should be "doesn't" of course. English is going down the drain.

Razorlight - Wire to wire: Can's say I recognized this as Razorlight despite their big success with the song America last year. But it's a great song. Slow, with piano and chant-like singing. And quite sad. Oh boy, I'm not sure I can talk about music in English in a way that makes much sense ... forgive me ...

Snow Patrol - Crack the shutters: Also known as Shut the crackers in my crazy little head ... hehe. I know that makes no sense, but my mind is weird like that. Anyway, it's a lovely song. On the radio this morning they said Gary Lightbody (singer) called the song Snow Patrol's most obvious love song or something like that. IMO their song Run was definitely also a love song, and Chasing Cars as well. Run has been covered by Leona Lewis now. Uah. Not as bad as Bleeding Love but she should just have let Snow Patrol alone.

Ne-Yo - Miss Independent: I'm not a big urban fan, but I like this one, as well as Jordin Sparks' Tattoo and Jennifer Hudson's Spotlight.

Schneereport

Dies ist eine Antwort auf den Beitrag eines Freundes, den man hier findet.

Schönes Foto!

Also, da ich mich ja in Bayern befinde, kann ich auch ne Temperatur beisteuern: das kälteste, was das Thermometer in meinem Auto bisher angezeigt hat, waren -16 Grad. Das war Donnerstag so zwischen 8 und halb 9, glaub ich Aber seit ein paar Tagen ist es wenigstens schön sonnig mit spektakulären Sonnenuntergängen.

Viel Schnee in NRW scheint zu stimmen, hab gestern von ner Freundin aus BO gehört, dass wegen der Schneemassen Chaos herrscht. Hm, kann mir irgendwie nicht so ganz vorstellen, wie das Chaos genau aussieht ... man wird halt wohl mit dem Auto schlecht voran kommen oder so. Hier geht's, es hat nur Anfang der Woche 10-15 cm geschneit geschneit und seitdem nicht mehr. Und meine Auto ist brav, toi toi toi.

Newest addiction: Gossip Girl

I have a new fave show: Gossip Girl. It's Josh Schwartz' new show (okay, not so new, it's already in its 2nd season ). Schwartz was the guy behind The O.C. which I enjoyed. Gossip Girl is similar in some ways, but very different in its setting - not Newport Beach or some other Californian place close to L.A., but the Upper East Side of New York City. Cool. And kinda makes it more grounded in reality for me.

Okay, that was a stub (as Wikipedia calls it), but I'm kinda in a hurry - season 3 of Prison Break starts in a couple of minutes. More on Gossip Girl might follow.

End of holiday

It's back to work for me tomorrow. Am nervous. And hope my car will start as it's freezing (-9 degrees Celsius right now). I un-dug it from 15 cm of snow yesterday.

Just wanted to report that I've seen 2 new films in the theatre over the holidays: Australia and Buddenbrooks.

Loved Australia from start to finish. Hugh Jackman is so good. Actually, the whole cast is, from villain David Wenham to Aboriginal boy Brandon Walters. Also loved the scenery and the epic-ness of it all - and the references to The Wizard of Oz which came as a surprise to me. Baz Luhrmann is one of my fave directors and I'll definitely get the DVD when it comes out.

The other film was a German one. Classic stuff, based on Thomas Mann's novel about a merchant family in Northern Germany in the 19th century. Can't say much about it. Good cast, nice costumes, but very depressing towards the end.

The next film I might go see is Twilight cos I've read all of the 4 vampire books by Stephenie Meyer. Am not too enthusiastic about them, though. Movie opens next week. We'll see.

Stupidest Blogthing ever - and so not true

Your Cupcake Says You Are Your Own Biggest Fan

At parties, you tend to be hyper and a bit out of control. It's hard for you to temper your enthusiasm! You have lots of restraint in your life. You never are victim to your desires. The most important thing in your life is fun. You are dominant, vain, and a bit of a show off. To know you is to worship you.

The Cupcake Test

Huh ...

I'm wondering why the navbar doesn't show in my blog although it's there in the page elements edit page. Strange.

Also, as always, my sitemeter seems to be gone. And I don't know what the edit button in the menu at the top is for. Whatever.

I have too many labels. Argh. So I'm wondering if I should have chosen a 3 column design instead cos at the moment the side menu goes down much further than the posts. Hm. We'll see ...

Update: I've gone through all my 150+ posts to edit / add / delete labels. Hopefully, things are a little mor structured now ...

I've also added the TV show list I had before. Some of the shows don't start before the week after next, but I guess I can add whatever I like and whenever I like ...

Ha, I've fixed the problem with the length of the columns by changing the number of displayed posts from 5 to 10. Am I not so very clever? Hehe.

Out with the old, in with the new

New year, new template. Yay. I've had enough of the old Tic Tac design and most of the other Blogger designs for now. I wanted something winter-y and found this one called Colorvoid. See bottom of page for link to the source. Now I have to re-build the widgets and stuff ... sigh ...