I am these puppets

Just under two months until their new album is out!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Isle of Summer

Summer time is music festival time and the first one to take place in Munich is Isle of Summer, and EDM minifest. It took place on the Praterinsel for the last few years, but it's now gotten too large and is being held near Kultfabrik this year. It's also characterised by the fact that it's supposed to start at 11am and end at 8am the following day, but Susi, Nicki, Moni, Laura, Haucke, myself, and some others met up at the more reasonable time of 1pm. It was going to be interesting to see how we would do as Susi regaled the others with the story of how she watched me dance for 3 hours straight at Balaton, followed by being the only one to stay awake in the following epic taxi ride.  

I was a bit surprised as to our early start but it turns out we had to get there early because Klingande were playing at a ridiculously early time. 

Just in case you wanted to know what I was talking about

The outdoor part of the party continued on as the sun set. It got a bit cold, but as you can see, the crush of people kept us all toasty!

There's a noise curfew in Munich and this is the carnage at the main stage after everyone went to one of the indoor sections. 

After dancing for a few more hours, Susi and I were the last of our party crew, but we eventually had to give up 12 hours after we arrived - quite frankly, our legs were sore and wanted to catch the u-bahn before it stopped for the night. The next day, I could really tell that I had spent about 9 hours dancing the day before :D

Keeping on animal videos...

This is a bit of an oldie but it's still so awesome.

hehehe @ being crushed by a seal pup :D

Dogs responding to magic

Seriously, this video of their responses to a magician making food disappear is too good.

The Fox

One day, as the German Top 100 countdown played in the background as I was doing some analysis, I had to replay one track because I heard a deep philosophical question and I needed to hear it again.

What sound does a fox make?!

Wiesn 2013 - Song of the year

Folktronica appeals to the folky, the drunks, and the ravers.

Wake Me Up

Raving with SHM

About midway through 2012, Swedish House Mafia announced that they were breaking up and would be going on a world tour. But alas! They weren't coming to Munich - the closest they would be coming were Prague or Schladming! I really considered the 3 hour train ride to Schladming but ultimately already had plans that weekend :(. When I got back to Melbs, Pooey told me that they were playing at the Music Bowl in a couple of weeks - she knew because her friend, Mattie, was flying over from Perth for the concert, I was all :D :D :D and managed to nab myself some tickets! And apparently I was really lucky because it was sold out but due to some mix-up, MOAR tickets went on sale! 

The weather in Melbs had been beautiful since I'd been there, mid 20s to mid 30s, with clear blue skies and sunshiney days. Perfect days for an open air concert/rave. It's a real pity that that evening it poured like hell. As someone later described it to me, "It hadn't rained in 2 months, you got really lucky that night." 

I was wearing raving clothes - jeans and a singlet. I went to Daiso to get some ponchos to for rain protection. This was the view of the street from Daiso...

I wasn't the only one with that idea - check out the sea of ponchos!

But I'll be damned if I'd be spending my entire time under a sheet of plastic! Either way, I was perfectly dressed for a wet t-shirt party.

Nickyliou demonstrates that it wasn't just incredibly wet - it was also windy. Or as I preferred to say *It's like being at Glastonbury!*

I later met up with NanceA who was a First Aid volunteer at the concert. She reported that people were coming in with hypothermia. But despite the horrendous weather, we were there to party, dagnammit! It was so wet that the touchscreen on my phone wasn't working properly so I didn't take that many pics. Many of these are ripped from Junes' fb album.

The sound and light show were pretty amazing. 

And this no doubt contributed to everyone's enjoyment! Look at those happy faces despite being drenched! It was so hot in there while dancing the Nickyliou's glasses fogged up :D

Because when SHM were on...

they totally went off!!!

We sure did!!!!

When contacting Pooey about picking me up, I requested that she bring me a change of clothes because I would have soaked the car if I remained in my wet jeans. But the party continued after getting changed - we met up with Mattie and his friends, and still wound up from the house music, we proceeded to go clubbing! First time Pooey had gone since she'd arrived back from London 4 years before :D

Swedish House Mafia vs. Tinie Tempah - Miami 2... von SwedishHouseMafiavsTinieTempah-Official

And the party still continues!

Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child...

Give me love - Ed Sheeran

I'm not sure how big Ed Sheeran is here. I mean, The A Team is played on the radio but beyond that...I'm in a vacuum that's part lack of music channel unless I'm at the gym, part GEMA blocking youtube. Well! I don't know why it's taken me so long to discover Warner Music's youtube channel but I think this is my new favourite song of his (the video is cool too). 

I wonder why no girls feature in the video...

COS I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE GONE FOR IT!!! Also, a pretty damn good advert!

David Guetta concert

A few months ago, I got an excited group email from Ruben saying that David Guetta was coming to Munich and did we want to go? I gave an excited affirmative reply. It turns out that other people weren't so willing to come (it wasn't cheap and it was in a kind of strange location), but who cares?! Me and two of my hombres? That's a FIESTA!!!


And so that's how I ended up standing in Konigsplatz on a humid Saturday night in some gummistiefel (gumboots) hopefully ready for any rain while listening to commercial dance music. He played a two and a half hour set containing pretty much all of the songs I knew, kicking off with

Titanium - feat. Sia

When Love Takes Over - feat. Kelly Rowland

Without You - feat. Usher

And a new song whose title I can't remember. Something I noticed though - unlike other djs who remix their songs when in concert, while the songs were mixed into each other, they largely sounded like their radio edits/the youtube vids. This was a good thing in my opinon!

A funny moment was when the guys went off to get bier and told me to stay where I was so they could find me again. Needless to say, they never came back and I ended up dancing with people who looked like teenagers. When the concert ended, I found them on the other side of the fence. And they had the nerve to say I was the one who moved!


Also, it didn't rain that much which is lucky - other friends who were at Odeonsplatz (about 1km away) said it rained like crazy there!

Killed this song at Karaoke on Friday night...

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Andres Iniesta and my husband Iker roam the streets asking for photos and autographs from randoms. 

Boyce Avenue

Pooey already wrote about these  guys and I think they should totally play at Pooey and Smee's wedding. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Cos there'll be no sunlight, if I lose you BAYBEH!!!! There'll be no clear skies, if I lose you BAYYYYBEHHH!!!!!

Happy Leap Day!

and Happy birthday to Rossini who would have been 220 or 55 years old today!

A great thing about going to the gym

Television! 


I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer followed by some core work. Having finished that, I decided to try and do more work and so I hopped back onto an elliptical trainer when - hey ho! I realised that Futurama (auf Deutsch) was on VIVA. And not just any old episodes of Futurama - two of my most favourite ones, Amazon Women in the Mood and Parasites Lost.


Great thing is, I've seen the episodes so many times in English that I totally got the German translations and picked up some new vocab! Ich habe gesnu-snu!

Unfortunately I couldn't find the clips in German - luckily it also works in Spanish!

RIP Whitney Houston.

Pooey sent me a whatsapp which I received at 2am saying that Whitney Houston died. Kind of like the passing of Amy Winehouse, the news was not particularly unexpected, but shocking and tragic nonetheless because a ridiculous talent was lost (admittedly a while ago :/) in the haze of drug abuse. 


Seriously, check it out:

She had it all - crazy talent, confidence, presence, looks...and she was about 22(?) in 1985. Even Dave is impressed!

I'll say it - a measure of her talent lives on in *Idol* shows. How many contestants try to belt out a Whitney song to demonstrate their vocal prowess? It's usually something like I Have Nothing. 

Unfortunately everyone now uses excessive melisma to demonstrate how great a singer they are.  

But it's not even people who think they can sing! I'm not a great singer but I loved getting smashed and then horrifying my friends by grappling with something like I Will Always Love You (always funny) or something like this:

Usually done in duet with my gal Nance! I think we were once rated 88% on it!

Also, as annoying it is it that Youtube Deutschland won't let me use official recordings, using the live performances for this entry I think is a sad demonstration of how good she was. 

Band of Brothers

I've been watching The Pacific and I've got to say, other than the strange thrill of seeing Melbourne on film (hehehe, I know where they filmed some things!), it's not as good as Band of Brothers. Or at least, it's suffering in comparison given that I've been watching them end to end. Okay, BoB has the unfair advantage of being older and therefore subject to more viewings and I know what's going to happen, but I'll lay it out as to why The Pacific suffers in comparison.

1. The source material. Firstly, unlike some criticisms I've read, I will never, ever say that the Pacific theatre of WWII is less interesting than the European. That's just wrong. However,  unlike BoB which is derived from Stephen Ambrose's text of the same name, The Pacific is based on the biographies of two different men, Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie, as well as recalling the experiences of John Basilone. While the three served in the 1st marine division, they did not serve together and so it seems more mashed together than a coherent following of different members of the same team, as we saw in BoB. This brings me to point 

2. A lot of the strength of BoB is seeing how the team bonds and suffers together through adversity, whether it be during training, through the various battles, loss of members to death and injury, to the end of the war. This team feeling is partly what makes BoB so powerful because it also feels as though we are a part of them, whether they're sitting in the snow in Bastogne, getting angry at Lt. Dike, or amazed at the badassery of Speirs. To me, there is less emotional involvement because it is following different teams in The Pacific.


3. Despite the subject matter, there are some surprising moments of levity. This is important because even though War is Hell, life can be pretty damn funny.

Those first few reasons are the main strengths and weaknesses comparing the two. But because I'm superficial, a very important reason is also...
4. The cast of The Pacific are just not as hot as the one in BoB. Ron Speirs sounds like he may have been an asshole in real life (possibly murdered POWs, rampant looter, his own men are slightly afraid of him), but played by Matthew Settle (aka Rufus from Gossip Girl), it seems kinda psycho hot! Take these gifs for example:

See? Hot! 

And then there's when we see how sad Doc Roe is, struggling not to bond with his teammates as they die in the snow and forest, it hurts!

Ron Livingston may always be slightly thought of as insecure Berger from SATC but he lends Lewis Nixon a certain charm despite the chronic alcoholism. And of course, BoB stars my favourite ginger, Damian Lewis, as the main character of the series, Dick Winters. I really love their scenes of platonic manlove in the last episode. Also, it's kinda fun to pick who the actors are now as the series features actors who were nobodies then and are people now - e.g. Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy...


4. With the team stuff and the hot actors, it's actually kinda slashy. This shouldn't be a reason for liking BoB more...but it is. Particularly Winters/Nixon. Just watch this clip.

Anyway, I'll try to repeatedly watch The Pacific until I feel a similar level of love. Otherwise, it's back to Europe with Easy Company!

Some youtube vids

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....ahhhh.....

Five people, one guitar!?!?!

Es schneit

Hate is probably too strong a word, but I'm not particularly enamoured by snow in an urban environment. Okay, it's really pretty when it's freshly fallen and people haven't trod over it yet, the air feels nice and dry and it's ultimately better than rain but....still...so many negatives. It takes so long to get dressed in the morning (gotta put a full set of thermals under the actual clothes and make sure appropriate socks, hats, gloves, coat...), and then walking to the closest u-bahn can be pretty hazardous with the partially melted snow, or worse - ice. And then the buses are packs and people suddenly forget how to drive...*sigh*


Anyway, here's a vid of the sudden blizzard that hit.

Amazingly about a minute after I stopped the video, the clouds cleared, the sun was shining in the blue sky and a bunch of kids came out to make snowballs!