YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GUESS WHO'S GOING TO SCREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM IN JUNE?!?!?!

On another note, I saw this posted on the way to the gym and seriously considered buying a ticket hehehe. 

"...allll my liiiiiife (babeh, babeh)..."

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). 

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!

Earworm - Payphone by Maroon5

When I first heard this, I didn't think it was that great but now it's stuck in my head like crazy. 

Also, those words, so true :P

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. 

Blasts from the Past...or Not

Going back to the gym, I've rediscovered a few late 90s/early 2000s music pearls. Well, maybe "pearl" is too strong a word but I'm remembering how much I enjoyed songs like Usher's You Make me Wanna, the Spice Girls' Who Do You Think You Are?, the backlist for the Backstreet Boys, Milkshake by Kelis and so forth. This made me want to look up the videos to share on Facebook and this blog.


Except there's something really special about Youtube in Deutschland that stops me from looking up official video clips or various artists' VEVO accounts to watch and post. Many times when looking up videos here, I'm greeted by this message:

Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.

And it's not just limited to official channels! A few months ago, Aunty MyTree posted a vid of her kids singing songs and posted it on youtube to share with the family. A day later she got an email from youtube Germany saying it violated some terms and conditions. And so the rest of the family could watch it but not me :(


It's really annoying. But I guess we can deal with it.