Monthly Archive for May, 2005

Whew!

Posted to Blog on May 31, 2005. 0 Comments

My passport has finally arrived. I orderered it five weeks ago, and have been freaking out about it since I will be leaving for New York next Saturday. I had been worrying because I imagine that immigration is strict enough already, even with just a tourist visa, so just having a contemporary passport would have complicated things immensely. But now it’s here, and it’s all good. I will be picking it up tomorrow. I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it. Le Tigre comes to mind, and suddenly the lyrics take on a whole different meaning ;)

I like Le Tigre, I wish I had made it to their show in Cologne a while ago. It seems to have been really good, at least that’s what their tour diary says. Yes that’s right, they have a diary. That’s one of the coolest things a band could do. But then, Le Tigre are very special. And I think JD rocks!

http://www.letigreworld.com/

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Season Finales

Posted to Blog on May 29, 2005. 0 Comments

Now that most of the season finales have aired, it’s time for a short recap. In no particular order:

ER
Total waste of time. As soon as I figured that this episode was more or less about Ray, I lost interest. I can’t stand him, and the same goes for Shane West, the actor who plays him. He has no talent, and he isn’t even cute, either! As for Carter leaving, oh well. He’s been around for a long time, and there were characters far more interesting than him, who left after a shorter stay. I never forgave him for what he did to Abby, and the whole Kim-raltionship was too much drama for me. When he went to Paris of all places, I was like, “Oh puh-lease!”. If it hadn’t been for the yummy new Jake, I wouldn’t have watched anyway Crappy finale to a generally crappy season, I might not be back for next season. Good riddance!

Gilmore Girls
Again, an incredibly weak season. I really want Luke and Lorelai to be together, which they were for most of the season. However, we hardly ever got to see them! Instead we got way too much Rory, and I could have done with less of the other characters as well. At least they provided us with a classic season finale cliffhanger again:

Luke is ranting about something, Lorelai watches him intently, goes all serious, I’m thinking, “Oh no, she’s not gonna break up with him now, is she?!”, Luke takes a break to catch some air, Lorelai asks, “Luke, will you marry me?”, Luke replies, “WHAT?!” – THE END!

Desperate Housewives
I loved the first half of the first season of Desperate Housewives, but then it went a little drab for a while. However, the season finale was really, really good. Most of the questions were answered, some new plotlines and characters were introduced, it had some very sad moments, and some hilarious ones. This is one of the most exciting shows currently airing, and I’m already looking forward to season 2.

The L Word
While The L Word is my favourite show and the first half of season 2 thrilled me. Maybe it was because it finally focussed on the younger characters such as Shane, Jenny, Alice, Dana, and the new character, lovely Carmen. It was very funny, partly thanks to Toxic Tonya, and had this general hip feel to it. The second half changed most of that. Way too much Betty and TiBette. There were characters I really didn’t give a toss about, such as that T.O.E. guy, and Bette’s father. I just don’t see what they are doing in a show about LA lesbians. Having said that, I always defended Mark, partly because he’s cute, but also because I could tell his overall function in the plotline. Ok ok, I admit – whenever there was Mark, chances were Shane was there too ;)

So the finale was pretty much like the second half of season 2. Betty were there, TiBette, Helena, her mother, a funeral bordering on bizarre, Jenny drama – but at least Shane and Carmen got back together.

Sharmen

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Just another blog

Posted to Uncategorized on May 29, 2005. 1 Comment

So this is my new blog. I don’t know if it’s going to last, chances are slightly grim. I had one at Spymac for a while, a site which I now look back on with a feeling bordering on hate. Then I started hosting a Blogger blog on my own webspace. Blogger is nice, but I don’t like the templates there, and don’t really feel like making my own right now. I also don’t like how it does not automatically upload to FTP. I feel like there are too many steps I have to make. I’m lazy, I can’t help it.

Then with the help of this tutorial, I finally managed to install WordPress on my PowerBook. And I love it, it’s totally sweet. Somehow, late last night, after writing a new entry, it stopped working though. It must have been something with my MySQL DB. I don’t know what exactly, since I didn’t make any changes, but that was it. Hosting something on a laptop doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anyway, since it is switched off a lot of the time. I wish I could use WordPress on my own webspace, but sadly it doesn’t come with PHP or MySQL. So for now I have just signed up for a free account and we’ll see how that goes. I’m in the process of sorting out webspace from work, so maybe I’ll be moving there eventually, I don’t know.

I’d like to have a blog that I’m happy with, for once in my life. I will be going to New York on June 11 (if my passport comes through by then!), and it would be nice to write a travelogue while I’m there. WordPress appears to be the only free blogging platform I have encountered so far which allows me all the functions I have always wanted. I wish I could say the same for my webspace!

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Placebo to start recording new album

Posted to Blog on May 27, 2005. 1 Comment

Great news, just found this official Placebo newsletter in my mailbox:

Placebo are on the eve of returning to the studio to start recording their 5th studio album. The new album due for release in 2006 is being produced by Dimitri Tikavoi, who has previously worked with Placebo on tracks such as ‘The Ballad of Melody Nelson and ‘Running Up That Hill’.

Keep checking http://www.placeboworld.co.uk in the coming weeks for news of some special studio updates.

Elsewhere, the former Placebo support band Anglo-American duo The Kills, release new single ‘Love is a Deserter’ on Monday 30th May on Domino Records. This favourite from their fantastic live show is the second single from their album ‘No Wow’. Bonus tracks include brand new songs, remixes by Cavemen and Phones (uber-producer Paul Epworth), plus a couple of Xfm session tracks co-produced by Edwyn Collins.

To hear all the tracks and watch the video, go to their fab mini-site:

http://www.dominorecordco.com/site/minisites/loveisadeserter

I second the Kills recommendation, another fab band I got to discover thanks to zesty.

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Hot Hot Heat

Posted to Uncategorized on May 27, 2005. 1 Comment

Thanks to the wonderful zesty, I got to find out about this brilliant band called Hot Hot Heat. However, the title for this entry is referring to the weather outside. It’s so hot that I don’t know what to do with myself. Spending time inside seems like a “waste of weather”. However, whenever I do find myself venturing outside, I’ve usually had enough after about 30 minutes and go back inside. I love the summertime, I really do, but this is too much, too soon.

It’s 5.45pm, and according to the Dashboard Weather Widget, it still is 31 degrees Celsius :o

It's hot in Cologne

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What Leon de Winter said…

Posted to Blog on May 24, 2005. 0 Comments

I’m sitting at work, catching up with the news because it’s been a bit of a slow day so far – unlike yesterday, when I was so stressed out by the time my “lunch break” finally arrived (at 3.30pm!)that I took a little sunbath in the yard and prompty fell asleep. I’m slowly becoming a huge fan of “power naps”, I slept for 20 minutes tops, but that made all the difference.

So how am feeling? I’m not sure. I think the change in the political climate unsettles me. While everyone is crying out for changes and reforms, I’m thinking, “Surely you can’t be so naive to believe that the CDU is going to make miracles happen here?!”. I can’t help it, I just think that any political party that has the word “conservative” scribbled all over their political agenda is not what this country needs right now. Going conservative does not automatically create a blooming economy just because it’s a “change”. A very bad change.

I found this quote by the Dutch writer Leon de Winter at Spiegel Online, which sums up my sentiments on the current political leaders very nicely:

“Natürlich hatte Gerhard Schröder keine andere Wahl, als jetzt den Wähler noch einmal zu fragen, ob er weiter machen soll. Das Problem ist, dass er im Herbst keine Chance haben wird, weil ein breiter Teil der deutschen Bevölkerung das Vertrauen zu ihm verloren hat. Dabei ist Schröder eigentlich ein guter Politiker – nur eben nicht in Krisenzeiten, denn er ist ein Mann der Kompromisse, nicht der klaren Visionen. Der CDU traue ich es ebenfalls nicht zu, die Probleme Deutschlands zu lösen.”

Neither do I Leon, neither do I!

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Some Rufus Eye-Candy

Posted to Blog on May 18, 2005. 0 Comments

Scan from the “All I Want”-DVD inlay.

Rufus Wainwright

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The L Word – approaching the Season 2 finale

Posted to Blog on May 17, 2005. 0 Comments

Oh Ilene Chaiken, why must you torture us so? Not only did Shane finally reveal her feelings (in a very Shane sort of way. Had it been any other person, one would have thought, “Say what?!”), but it made Carmen walk away from her? I mean, hello?

Does this mean Shane is going to be off to sulk forever – or at least well into Season 3? The trailer gave little away: At least Shane and Carmen appear to be on speaking terms. They are watching a Jenny Freak Show (literally). And then the trailer had to proclaim a “shocking season finale.” Why is that always neccessary? I’m going to keep watching a show, even if things go well for a while!

I still remember being a bit of a mess after the Season 1 finale. I felt like everything had shattered to pieces, and I really, really don’t want this to be happening again.

My outlook isn’t bright – I do guess that Bette and Tina will get together. Now that is the couple I don’t care about. I imagine that Dana and Alice are going to split up over Lara. I always wanted the sous chef back, but not if it means a breakup is involved!!! And Shane and Carmen… I do have this sneaking suspicion that things might actually look promising, and then emotionally-more-than-fragile Jenny comes along and fucks it up big time. Yep, you guessed right – I’m not exactly Jenny’s biggest fan!

Anyways, this is one of my favourite TV Shows, and I’m going to miss it when it’s not around.

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I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy

Posted to Blog on May 14, 2005. 2 Comments

Well, not really, obviously. However, I simply command that you just have to listen to either “Antony & The Johnsons” (album), “I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy” (EP) or “I Am a Bird Now” (album) by the fabulous fabulous Antony of Antony & The Johnsons-fame.

Who do I have to thank for finding out about this genius singer? Rufie, of course. Here I was, listening to “Want Two”, “Old Whore’s Diet” to be more specific, when I was like, “Ok, whoever is guest-singing on that one, he’s got the gayest voice ever.”

However, as the song progressed (it’s a looong song, almost 10 minutes) I grew increasingly impressed by the lead singer. He’s got one of these voices that can sound like a full choir. It’s just impossible to categorize, it is quite female-sounding at times (critics have often compared him to Nina Simone), then very dark and masculine, and almost bordering on an opera-esque soprano. And the vibrato on the higher notes is simply breathtaking. Sometimes the voice is just a side-dish of a song, in Antony’s case it becomes a full-fledged instrument.

I did a bit of googling and found out that he had released a self-titled debut album which I then bought, and I’ve never looked back. It is pure musical perfection, backed up by a full orchestra it still brings the occasional tear to my eye. I also managed to get hold of the “I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy”-EP and I just have to say that the title track has already made it to my list of funeral songs.

Hey, I love music so much, do you really think I could stand the thought of leaving this world with bad music being played at my funeral?! I’m by no means suicidal or anything, but I’m realistic enough to know that anything could happen to anyone any day. Anyways, “I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy” is fantastic, some cool gender confusion lyrics combined with a very dramtatic, almost 15-second-long pause only 45 seconds into the songs – amazing.

“I Am a Bird Now” is a fine album too. It features Boy George, Lou Reed and Rufus Wainwright, and of course “What Can I Do” is my favourite song, it’s not even two minutes long but long enough to have made me cry on first listen, and still touching me very deeply whenever I listen to it.

Antony is an exceptional artist, simple as that. The fact that people like him and Rufus Wainwright are still out there give me hope that the music industry isn’t as bad as the world we live in.

You can find sound samples from his songs here:
http://www.brainwashed.com/antony/

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Sometimes laziness DOES pay off

Posted to Uncategorized on May 13, 2005. 0 Comments

Just got home, felt like watching my Rufus Wainwright “All I Want” DVD AGAIN, popped it into the DVD player, noticed that my remote control was somewhere else, and pressed the “>>|”-key on my DVD player to see whether that works as the menu selector.

Welp apparently it does not, but I found the most amazing DVD Easter Egg instead! It’s a very cute and VERY funny (what’s with the cap locks today?!) video by Martha and Rufus who couldn’t make it to an award ceremony where their mother and aunt, The McGarriagle Sisters, were honoured. The video features them mimicking the sisters, it’s so funny that I wouldn’t even know where to start.

This is just the icing of the cake. “All I Want” is just the way I wish all these other music DVDs I own were like. It features a full-length documentary, numerous extracts from several live shows, the recording session for the documentary, promo clips, interviews, a very cute mini-documentary from 1998 with clips of a very young Rufus, and probably even more. My recommendation: GO BUY!

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