The festival feeling has worn off, reality has got me back and I do not like the weather outside. So what to do with a Sunday like this?
First of all: Listen to my old bands new song for the umpteenth time is an option. It is called "Hail Reality" and I like the lyrics. Furthermore you can hear in the demo that Rob is singing the background voice, which adds a little variety compared to the last demos which were better live. But check out for yourself on Myspace and support those guys!
And because I do not want to live without music myself, I have decided to learn how to play the guitar. I know, I am going to suck, but at least I will try. So far I have managed to learn how to tune it, around 8 chords and to change a string.
And as my index finger is already aching again, I might waste some time on YouTube. If you would like to have a good laugh, check out some literal versions of songs. Here is my personal favourite. I wonder what was the intention behind some music videos and this parody brings it right to the point.
Sonntag, 19. Juli 2009
Montag, 13. Juli 2009
OXEGEN Festival - Keep on rockin'
A few months ago, a colleague and I had a difficult decision to make: See one of the biggest rock festivals in Europe with an amazing line-up or keep the incredible amount of almost 250 Euro, which would be enough for two other festivals. In the end, we decided to buy the tickets, buy a tent, buy a decent supply of food, get a third person - our favourite intern ;) - to come with us and just do it. So enjoy my personal festival report, some videos made by me on YouTube and some pictures.
So Thursday night we packed a car with all those things - excluding the intern, who would come on Friday - and went to the festivalground on Punchestown Racecourse, around half an hour from Dublin. After having pitched the tent and making friends with our neighbours - within an hour everyone in a 200m-radius knew, we were "Ze Germans" and had tried their German skills on us - we realized how unbelievably big this was going to be. The campground was huge, including a supermarket, a tremendous number of food stands and camping shops. Apart from this there were two fairgrounds with amazing, yet expensive attractions. And the festival ground was even more impressive.
Friday morning the sun was shining and the first night in the tent had been more or less comfortable. After some German Bratwurst from the small barbecue we had brought, we felt ready to rock and went to the festivalground. Which was about the time it started raining for the first time. This did not keep us from seeing some great performances, starting with Therapy? and Lily Allen. Then we decided to go to the pit and have a better view for The Script (which none of my German friends might know, but let's say they are like the Irish "Wir sind Helden" or "Sportfreunde Stller" - and a real chick flick). Snow Patrol, who were on afterwards and were my personal favourite on Friday had a great show including some cool videos, which we were enjoying from the fifth row, with an amazing view back over thousands of people.
The headliners on Friday were Blur, who were a disappointment to me. Damon Albarn was so stoned, he was unable to remember his setlist, which is not an assumption, but a fact, because he admitted it between two songs. Still, I went crazy for "Song 2", for which we had to wait until the very end of course, although the band seemed pretty bored. Which is somehow understandable if you are always associated with one song, even if you are not a one-hit wonder.
Saturday my two fellow festivalgoers could not be bothered to get out of the tent and trade their afternoon nap against some decent rock music, so I prepared myself a festival bag (a 1,5 litre Tetra Pak with Vodka Orange, turned into a nice handbag by using duck tape) and went off to see The Blizzards on my own. The hardest decision was yet to come, because I was standing in the second row when James Morrison started playing and the next act on the Main Stage were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - so would I trade my perfect position and the nice female company I had met in the pit for Maximo Park, who were playing at a smaller stage at the same time, or just stay in the pit. I chose the pit, got soaked like crazy as the strongest downpour of the weekend started and also saw Elbow before finally my personal favourite was on: Bloc Party.
Or for an even better video of my favourite Bloc Party-song go to MTV. If you look hard, you can even see me in their footage. In this moment I had been in the pit for six hours without anything to drink or a toilet and no chance to get back to my place if I gave in to my basic needs. So I just went crazy and forgot about my thirst, my bursting bladder and the fact that I was soaked despite my raincoat. And if you are in the pit with a girl who wants to see Kings of Leon and without having heard from you friends in hours (the mobile network had a time lag there) you will stay there and shout "Sex on Fire". After over eight hours in the pit, I still had to skip their encore, because the girl I was with had fainted and I was gentleman enough to accompany her to the first aid tent - also because I might have been close to fainting from pure exhaustion myself.
So my first decision for Sunday was: No pit for me! The second decision was that we were all dying for a shower and a decent bed and so we carried our tent and supplies to the car before we went to the festival. The fist band we saw were the White Lies and then came the biggest surprise of the weekend. After we had gotten a glimpse of Lady Gaga's crazy performance of kneeling on a bench and playing an acoustic version of "Pokerface" on a piano while holding her nearly naked booty into the cameras, we enjoyed a show I would never have thought to be good - so my price for the hottest and most talented female goes to: Katy Perry! Her show was awesome and the crowd went crazy after she had covered Queens "Don't stop me now" and then played "I kissed a girl".
After seeing The Ting Tings, we went off to the main stage to finish our festival experience with Razorlight and The Killers. I have to say though, I liked The Killers better last year on a small German festival called Highfield. They played on Friday night and it was great. Still, I think a festival needs some decent rock to finish off with and not a cool rock band that turned mainstream (no offense guys, I still like you and was to one to shouted his lungs out for "Mr. Brightside"). So think about inviting The Beatsteaks to Oxegen next year! :) All in all the whole festival was fun and I managed to stay pretty clean until the very end when people went crazy in the mud. So let me cite my friend and colleague Florian: "Who needs a mosh pit when you can have a mud pit?"
Snow Patrol
My soaking friends
It is insulting, but at least the owners are German and Bratwurst IS selling
Prepared to rock!
My favourite festival picture
The fellowship of Oxegen
Did I mention the rain?
Decent German beer made our day.
Blur in action 1
Blur in action 2
Shadow play during The Killers
The mud pit...
...and me being a little less enthusiastic about it.
Rain shelters can be found everywhere
Katy Perry and her...umm...little present she got from her fans
So Thursday night we packed a car with all those things - excluding the intern, who would come on Friday - and went to the festivalground on Punchestown Racecourse, around half an hour from Dublin. After having pitched the tent and making friends with our neighbours - within an hour everyone in a 200m-radius knew, we were "Ze Germans" and had tried their German skills on us - we realized how unbelievably big this was going to be. The campground was huge, including a supermarket, a tremendous number of food stands and camping shops. Apart from this there were two fairgrounds with amazing, yet expensive attractions. And the festival ground was even more impressive.
Friday morning the sun was shining and the first night in the tent had been more or less comfortable. After some German Bratwurst from the small barbecue we had brought, we felt ready to rock and went to the festivalground. Which was about the time it started raining for the first time. This did not keep us from seeing some great performances, starting with Therapy? and Lily Allen. Then we decided to go to the pit and have a better view for The Script (which none of my German friends might know, but let's say they are like the Irish "Wir sind Helden" or "Sportfreunde Stller" - and a real chick flick). Snow Patrol, who were on afterwards and were my personal favourite on Friday had a great show including some cool videos, which we were enjoying from the fifth row, with an amazing view back over thousands of people.
The headliners on Friday were Blur, who were a disappointment to me. Damon Albarn was so stoned, he was unable to remember his setlist, which is not an assumption, but a fact, because he admitted it between two songs. Still, I went crazy for "Song 2", for which we had to wait until the very end of course, although the band seemed pretty bored. Which is somehow understandable if you are always associated with one song, even if you are not a one-hit wonder.
Saturday my two fellow festivalgoers could not be bothered to get out of the tent and trade their afternoon nap against some decent rock music, so I prepared myself a festival bag (a 1,5 litre Tetra Pak with Vodka Orange, turned into a nice handbag by using duck tape) and went off to see The Blizzards on my own. The hardest decision was yet to come, because I was standing in the second row when James Morrison started playing and the next act on the Main Stage were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - so would I trade my perfect position and the nice female company I had met in the pit for Maximo Park, who were playing at a smaller stage at the same time, or just stay in the pit. I chose the pit, got soaked like crazy as the strongest downpour of the weekend started and also saw Elbow before finally my personal favourite was on: Bloc Party.
Or for an even better video of my favourite Bloc Party-song go to MTV. If you look hard, you can even see me in their footage. In this moment I had been in the pit for six hours without anything to drink or a toilet and no chance to get back to my place if I gave in to my basic needs. So I just went crazy and forgot about my thirst, my bursting bladder and the fact that I was soaked despite my raincoat. And if you are in the pit with a girl who wants to see Kings of Leon and without having heard from you friends in hours (the mobile network had a time lag there) you will stay there and shout "Sex on Fire". After over eight hours in the pit, I still had to skip their encore, because the girl I was with had fainted and I was gentleman enough to accompany her to the first aid tent - also because I might have been close to fainting from pure exhaustion myself.
So my first decision for Sunday was: No pit for me! The second decision was that we were all dying for a shower and a decent bed and so we carried our tent and supplies to the car before we went to the festival. The fist band we saw were the White Lies and then came the biggest surprise of the weekend. After we had gotten a glimpse of Lady Gaga's crazy performance of kneeling on a bench and playing an acoustic version of "Pokerface" on a piano while holding her nearly naked booty into the cameras, we enjoyed a show I would never have thought to be good - so my price for the hottest and most talented female goes to: Katy Perry! Her show was awesome and the crowd went crazy after she had covered Queens "Don't stop me now" and then played "I kissed a girl".
After seeing The Ting Tings, we went off to the main stage to finish our festival experience with Razorlight and The Killers. I have to say though, I liked The Killers better last year on a small German festival called Highfield. They played on Friday night and it was great. Still, I think a festival needs some decent rock to finish off with and not a cool rock band that turned mainstream (no offense guys, I still like you and was to one to shouted his lungs out for "Mr. Brightside"). So think about inviting The Beatsteaks to Oxegen next year! :) All in all the whole festival was fun and I managed to stay pretty clean until the very end when people went crazy in the mud. So let me cite my friend and colleague Florian: "Who needs a mosh pit when you can have a mud pit?"
Snow Patrol
My soaking friends
It is insulting, but at least the owners are German and Bratwurst IS selling
Prepared to rock!
My favourite festival picture
The fellowship of Oxegen
Did I mention the rain?
Decent German beer made our day.
Blur in action 1
Blur in action 2
Shadow play during The Killers
The mud pit...
...and me being a little less enthusiastic about it.
Rain shelters can be found everywhere
Katy Perry and her...umm...little present she got from her fans
Montag, 6. Juli 2009
FREE Audio-Book by Chris Anderson
Well as autumn comes nearer and nearer - maybe not to you on the sunny continent, but still it is coming as I could feel yesterday when I was caught by an Irish downpour - it is time to read books again. And as I know that many of you have given up on paperbacks and switched to audio-books, I would like to recommend one to you.
The best thing about it: Not only my recommendation is for free...the audio-book itself is free as well. And this is what it ultimately is about! The title - you might guess - is "Free" and the author of the book is Chris Anderson, editor in chief of the American "Wired"-Magazine and a visionary when it comes to the economics of the 21st century. Maybe you have read his last book "The Long Tail".
You might say: "Why is this book for free then?" - and this is exactly what is behind the idea. The normal paper version of the book will set you back around 25 Euro, the audio-version is available for download.
And already, you have learned an essential lesson from Anderson's book: Companies will earn their money "around their products", not by charging for their use. See Google's Search Engine that is essentially free to use and pays for itself by online advertisement. So listen to the book, understand the concept and maybe become the next internet-millionaire.
Here you can download the book for free.
And for those of you who would like to read about the book in German first, here is a link to an article on Spiegel Online.
Hope you enjoy it and happy money making for free. :)
The best thing about it: Not only my recommendation is for free...the audio-book itself is free as well. And this is what it ultimately is about! The title - you might guess - is "Free" and the author of the book is Chris Anderson, editor in chief of the American "Wired"-Magazine and a visionary when it comes to the economics of the 21st century. Maybe you have read his last book "The Long Tail".
You might say: "Why is this book for free then?" - and this is exactly what is behind the idea. The normal paper version of the book will set you back around 25 Euro, the audio-version is available for download.
And already, you have learned an essential lesson from Anderson's book: Companies will earn their money "around their products", not by charging for their use. See Google's Search Engine that is essentially free to use and pays for itself by online advertisement. So listen to the book, understand the concept and maybe become the next internet-millionaire.
Here you can download the book for free.
And for those of you who would like to read about the book in German first, here is a link to an article on Spiegel Online.
Hope you enjoy it and happy money making for free. :)
Samstag, 4. Juli 2009
Guns n' Bruises
If there is something on the order, that recently got forbidden in my home country, guess who is in? This Saturday I decided to play paintball for the first time in my life. I was never that interested in violent games - I sucked at Counterstrike when I played it once - and always preferred something more strategic. Apart from that I have not been in the military and my ligaments, that had been torn multiple times, were not the only reason why I might not have been a good fit for the German Bundeswehr.
Still, as a colleague of mine had the idea, I did not hesitate to say I would come. So there we were, on a rainy Saturday in the middle of a forest with a bunch of other people, willing to shoot you with yellow plastic balls filled with paint. First thing you get is a safety instruction - at least for the most important rules. Second, you get dressed up in nice black overalls and a helmet that makes you look like a predator for two reasons: First to be protected and second - and I guess more importantly - to scare your opponents off by looking more fierce and dangerous.
The first round was actually really boring. We started off with our team of eight and played a short 4-versus-4 in which most of the time everybody hid behind barrels. Then we had to buy more ammunition and I was wondering if this was worth it. When I read on the box that those balls were "Helal" and thus save for our Muslim friends, I wondered who would think of eating those. I got taught in the second round, while I had to defend a fortress against the other team. I got shot on the mouthpiece of my helmet and swallowed some paint. Does not taste that good, so even if it is safe, I would not recommend eating paintballs. And I was happy that head shots do not count.
Apart from this, the second game was really fun and also very challenging as every team had to be the attacking team once and then the defending team afterwards. The third and - for us - last game was interesting as well. The teams had to conquer and defend houses against the other team. This really gave you an adrenalin rush and as we were playing with some fierce looking Moldavian tourists some of whom did not understand a single word of English, also made me a little uncomfortable. Violent orders in Russian being shouted next to your ear and yellow paintballs hitting your butt from less than the three meters safety range (Thanks for that, nameless girl on my (!!!) team) taught me two things. First: Yes, there is a certain fun in playing gotcha. Second: The German military did not miss on a great soldier and I would definitely be one of the first to be shot in a real combat.
So I am happy to live a peaceful life and having gotten away with only three bruises - one particularly big one on my back - and close this post with the words of a wise dead musician (shot by the way):
"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."
Still, as a colleague of mine had the idea, I did not hesitate to say I would come. So there we were, on a rainy Saturday in the middle of a forest with a bunch of other people, willing to shoot you with yellow plastic balls filled with paint. First thing you get is a safety instruction - at least for the most important rules. Second, you get dressed up in nice black overalls and a helmet that makes you look like a predator for two reasons: First to be protected and second - and I guess more importantly - to scare your opponents off by looking more fierce and dangerous.
The first round was actually really boring. We started off with our team of eight and played a short 4-versus-4 in which most of the time everybody hid behind barrels. Then we had to buy more ammunition and I was wondering if this was worth it. When I read on the box that those balls were "Helal" and thus save for our Muslim friends, I wondered who would think of eating those. I got taught in the second round, while I had to defend a fortress against the other team. I got shot on the mouthpiece of my helmet and swallowed some paint. Does not taste that good, so even if it is safe, I would not recommend eating paintballs. And I was happy that head shots do not count.
Apart from this, the second game was really fun and also very challenging as every team had to be the attacking team once and then the defending team afterwards. The third and - for us - last game was interesting as well. The teams had to conquer and defend houses against the other team. This really gave you an adrenalin rush and as we were playing with some fierce looking Moldavian tourists some of whom did not understand a single word of English, also made me a little uncomfortable. Violent orders in Russian being shouted next to your ear and yellow paintballs hitting your butt from less than the three meters safety range (Thanks for that, nameless girl on my (!!!) team) taught me two things. First: Yes, there is a certain fun in playing gotcha. Second: The German military did not miss on a great soldier and I would definitely be one of the first to be shot in a real combat.
So I am happy to live a peaceful life and having gotten away with only three bruises - one particularly big one on my back - and close this post with the words of a wise dead musician (shot by the way):
"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)